Hi Tom Crump,
Good to see another Senior Kadet build starting. When I built my S. Kadet , there were no a.r.f. versions out there. I didn't like the ideal of rubber bands for the wings and so I modified mine to be a bolt on. I used 1/8th" birch 5ply to beef up the cabin area. I felt the poplar lite ply didn't offer enough strength to hand the flight loads.
I too built my S Kadet as a tail dragger because I had seen too many times the trike version tip over onto its nose and wing tip. I found the Four Star 120 aluminum landing gear to fit just right. The 4 S. landing gear was also a bit wider which added to its stability.
I wanted to clean up the front end a bit and so I just blocked in the nose with balsa and faired it into a 2.5" True Turn spinner.
Lastly I wanted to make my S Kadet capable of flying at night so I added lights to the internals and covered my plane with transparent Super MonoKote to allow the lights to show though easily.
I powered the Kadet with an O.S. 61FS and it has more than enough power for a great flyer.
Good Luck with your project and post lots of pictures!
Carlos G
P.S., You can see my Kadet in the Kadet Brotherhood thread, ( Page 14, about half way down) just slighty ahead of my membership #
Last edited by Carlos G; 10-23-2014 at 07:46 PM.