ORIGINAL: wrig0335

Greetings,

This weekend I picked up a nice 72" Cap 21 for really cheap! It came without any radio gear, engine, or manual/information. I will be returning it to flying status, but don't even know where to start. Please bear with all the questions, and I'd appreciate any help you can give me!

First of all, I don't know what kind of kit it came from. There is a fiberglass cowl that was probably purchased, as well as the canopy. The cowl has an "oil door" imprinted in it to look scale, as well as some very nicely formed curves.

It was obviously painted, as you can see from the pics. There is quite a bit of hangar rash, and I'd like to strip it and recover. You can see that on the stab picture, some of the wood grain looks visible. What would be the most likely covering system that he used? I really like the painted look, as it's much cleaner than a monokote finish, but it doesn't look like it has Stits or Fiberglass on it- but maybe some light tissue or something.. Any other covering processes, and how would I tell which one was used? I might just go the Monokote route for ease of covering and from previous experience in it... plus it would probably be a lot lighter.

>If you want to use a film covering I would suggest Ultracote/Oracover
>instead of MonoKote. MonoKote has really gone downhill in the past
>couple of years as far as quality of adhesive and shrinking ability is
>concerned, not to mention the Lusterkote paints don't spray (much
>less color match) worth sh*t.
>
>If you want to paint, there are a couple of ways to do it. For a lite weight
>finish you can either glass it using the water base polyurethane method
>or cover the plane in a medium grade silkspan and then do your
>priming and painting. In either recovering or re painting you will
>need to remove the old finish first.
>

What size servos, etc, (in terms of ounce-inch) should I use? I assume standard for throttle and flaps, but what about ailerons, elevator, and rudder?

>I don't know what size engine you will be using, but I would
>suggest a MINIMUM of 75 oz (preferably 100 oz torque) for the
>rudder. If the elevator is running dual servos (one servo on each
>half ) standard servos should be OK. If it is a single servo setup
>use a MINIMUM of 75 oz torque (preferably 100 oz torque ). For
>the ailerons, if it is a dual servo, standard servos (or if the room
>is minimal ) HiTec 85 servos. If it is a single servo, go with the
>75/100 oz servo.
>
>This plane is designed to be flown at fairly high speeds and will
>be subjected to high G manuvers - you will want the extra torque.
>I have had good performance from GWS S03TXF (78 oz) and GWS
>S03T (100 oz) servos. The S03T is a tad slow at .33 but the price
>on either is right and I have not noticed any perceptable difference
>in respose time in flight.
> http://www.balsapr.com/catalog/Servos/gwsServos.asp
>I have gotten stuff from Balsa Products before and their prices
>and service have been excellent.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
-Pat-