RCU Forums - View Single Post - SIG Stratus (#RC4)

07-28-2015, 10:38 AM

#240

skylark-flier

Join Date: Sep 2002

Location: VA, Luray

Posts: 2,226

Likes: 106

Received 15 Likes on 13 Posts

Hey Sherwood! Yeah, I'm still here - this is summer so I'm pretty well tied up with my "horse" thing right now. HOWEVER, the Stratus is on the workbench, partially torn down, partially restored already. The rebuild is gonna take awhile anyway (limited $$$) so I'm playing with finding new control rods that WON'T FLEX EVEN A LITTLE BIT, along with a few other minor mods. While I'm 90% convinced the radio (switch) was the prime culprit, seeing those bent control rods is uncomfortable too. Might as well be comfortable while I'm flying.

Have no fear - this bird WILL fly again, but probably not until late fall. I can't go on without seeing her maneuvering in the sky. Once I found out HOW to initiate her stall turns and spins (it's a bit different from most other planes, as you probably know well) I had HUGE fun throwing her all over the sky. I found that for a stall turn - you hit rudder in one direction for just a split second and then go full the other way, and THEN drop the engine to about half throttle as she starts to rotate around. Works fabulously well, in either direction. And for spins, you need to still be climbing a bit (gotta have air movement on the tail I guess) when you deflect everything - then go to idle as she starts reacting (which is nearly immediately). Inverted spins (elevator down) are thrilling (the fact that she WILL do it is amazing to me) but rather odd looking (because of the dihedral, I guess), normal spins (elevator up) are so fast they're freaky.

Basically so far;
1. Wings are 75% stripped of covering, cap strips are off the ribs and sheeting is on the ribs. Sanding has commenced to bring everything back to some kind of smoothness before I put the wings back together and start recovering them.

2. Most of the fuselage joint-separation is repaired, fuse is in one piece again behind the firewall. Bottom sheeting has been removed AGAIN under the horizontal stab so I can do a bit of repair work inside the h-stab at the center. Firewall is back on but bottom sheeting is still off until I get her new tank and throttle & steering rods back on her. Radio compartment is untouched so far. That'll wait for the new radio so I can fit everything properly again.

3. Engine has been torn down so I can take a look-see inside. Actually, she's not in bad shape at all. There's a bit of a crack right behind the carb on the cylinder side that actually starts where the muffler mounting bolt tubes were torn away, PLUS the muffler mounting tubes themselves being broken off. Other than that, it seems fine. Crank is straight - - actually, spinner was still attached SECURELY and has no damage other than a minor scratch from an underground stone about the size of a brussels sprout, and a whole lot of dirt, so I might just think about using it when I put everything back together again. Neither prop blade was ever found though. Can't fix that one.

This brings up my first "search"; can something like that kind of damage be repaired or is it lost entirely? Who might be able to repair it, if repair is possible?

4. Radio is definitely toast, but that's really no disaster. I've got a feeling she was toasted before the plane hit the ground, which is WHY the plane hit the ground. Like I said earlier, this was the last survivor of 3 Tower Hobbies System-3000 radios I bought at the same time in 2001. Probably shouldn't have trusted it in the first place. My bad. For replacement, I'm dithering. My first choice would be another 72MHz Futaba like I've got in the Kadet, Champ & Cub (Futaba 4YF 4-Channel FM/4 S3004 Servos) or I might go with the 2.4GHz version (Futaba 4YF 4-Channel FHSS System). I've got ZERO experience with the 2.4GHz radios though so I'm leaning more toward the 72MHz, which is what I know.

Soooooooo, it's slow but it's gonna happen. Will keep all y'all up on progress.

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