ORIGINAL: Old Dutch
CLOLSON......... You have taken this classical bird to a new level. I salute you! A couple of sugestions. Please get out the white paint and a small brush and go to work on the exposed bare wood. Then make a floor out of sheet balsa and install a pilot on it. My goodness, you can't have such a plane flying around without a pilot! Putting that aside, please give us some details on how you rigged your steerable tailwheel. Incidentally, I use the furnished fuel tank, power the model with a Magnum .61 FS and get 18-20 min. flying time. And no, the flying is not boring. Relaxing yes. However, the fun part is "flying the wing" and rolling it, and making great big 'ol loops. Try doing that while making a perfectly executed loop. Another side note here.....someone said that they are using an Asp engine in their's and "it's the same as the Magnum". Wrong! Same company, different engine. Anyway, congrats on a fine job, and again, please detail how you set up the tail wheel......Cheers!
Old Dutch, just to be fair, there have been many before me that have done similar things and done it much better than me, but I was having so much fun with this project and was so pumped after the maiden flight, that I couldn't help but post my experiences. :-) I always enjoy hearing other people's stories about their successes (even the simple ones like mine) and if I enjoy these stories, therefore everyone else must enjoy them too, right? :-)
Fixing up the cockpit is another good idea ... I now have more good ideas than time. :-) One thing I think I'd like to do is go get some airfoil shaped aluminum stock from the LHS and rig up some fake wing struts ... I think that would be a neat addition ... along with wheel pants.
As far as the tail wheel goes, this picture hopefully tells the full story:
http://www.flightgear.org/~curt/Mode.../img_2478.html
The downside to putting a servo in the tail is that I ende up with 10oz of lead up front ... the Kadet hardly notices this, but it was still a big annoyance.
Here is one pilot option I was considering:
http://www.flightgear.org/~curt/Mode.../img_2438.html
I had a fairly knowledgeable person tell me that the ASP was exactly the same engine as the magnum ... same company, same building, just different names stamped on the side for different customers ... but I honestly don't know for sure ... I'm only repeating what I heard. I do have the Magnum manual and from the exploded view, it sure looks like the same engine too me, but if there are subtle differences, I'd probably miss them ...
Please post some pictures of your Kadet!
Hey, is anyone out there going to the Sig fly-in in Iowa over father's day? They are within driving range for me so I'm half tempted to go down there. But I can't fit my family and my airplane in the car all at the same time ... what to do???? what to do????
Dang it, I knew the most expensive part of this Kadet project was going to be buying the minivan to haul it. :-(
Curt.