I have a Fun Tiger Profile plane and I flew it for the first time last summer and I loved it. Unfortunately the engine stalled when I was only about 30 feet off the ground and I came down over some thick bushes and poked holes in the covering. So now my goal is to take the old covering off (because it’s crap) and reduce the weight of the plane a bit. I had to add quite a bit of weight to the nose of the plane to get it to balance properly, so I would like to reduce the weight in the back, but I’m not sure how much I can take off. If any one out there had done this before, please let me know how much you took off your plane and how much better it performed.

Thanks,
Jon Mason

I solved that problem by adding a larger engine. Plane balances perfectly with an O.S. Fx61. And flies GREAT with it. I recoved mine also ....not to much material back there to remove

The material it is made of is the problem. The sides of the fuse are ply, and the sticks, well don't really look like balsa. I agree with the motor switch. My Rossi needed two ounces of lead in the nose to be anywhere near flyable. My CG ended up about 1 inch aft of where the wing leading edge sheeting stops. A 61FX with a 13x4 would be nice.

Also, I agree that the Crap-O-Kote has got to go. Don't add too much weight there either. Keep it simple. No layers on top of lawers.

Same problem, overweight toad!!!! I removed the covering and mono coated mine. Removed some of the plywood around the openings on the fus. , uses a drum sander on a dremmel. Re-glued the entire structure with ca as mine was coming apart from lack of glue. Built new ailerons by using 1/16 sheet with lighting holes and capped with balsa strips top and bottom between the holes. It looks like the original ailerons except rigid enough not to warp like the originals. I topped this off with a Mag. 61a and a 13x4 APC prop. Take off to full reticle is about 5 feet. I have flown this plane hard and I see some of the ribs collapsing due to stress and poor material.

I liked mine, and flew the crap out of it. It wa a bit heavy though. I bought the first as an ARF, and hated the covering. The second was an ARC. I CAed a bunch, and covered it. I did put a strip od carbon fiber along the horizontal stab hinge line top and bottom. The stab looked way weak. I'll estimate at least 225 flights on it. It was good, but not great. I had no structural failures of any kind. I sold it to a pal, and he still flies it today. Probably close to 300 flights by now.

Maybe I just got a good one. I was due for a break in my bad luck.

Well, I don't have the money for a new engine (but that's a good idea), the OS 46 FX I have for it doesn't do a half bad job. I do thing I will try and grind away some of the ply a bit tomorrow and we will see how much it takes off. I cant get the ailerons off as of yet, but I'm going to try to salvage them if I can, if not, I will end up making up new ones. They will probably end up better that way any way. I will definitely end up adding some CA in spots.

On a covering note, I can't believe they would put a covering on that plane that when the glue came in contact with glow file, turned to mush! I have spots on the wing and the tail of the plane that were exposed to fuel and I'm kinda cheesed about that.

Thanks for you help and if any one ells has any suggestions, pleas send them my way.

Jon

Just as well do the ailerons they will warp after you cover them and each weather change may re-set them for you. I have already tried to salvage the origionals, I was not happy with the results and made the new ones which work well. Leave enough gap to allow really high deflection w/out pulling the hinges out, just a tip I remembered. Have fun....12.25x3.75 apc prop. should be just the ticket?

This may not have made a lot of difference, but every little bit helps. What do you think?

This is the first time I have tried this technique. I'm using 3 layers of monocot, and I put them together with trim solvent before I put them on the plane.

I put the parts together on a sheet of glass

I made the pattern in CAD, printed out the parts of the pattern, taped the parts together, and used that as my template. the way I could figure the lap and I could make the pattern perfect. To bad I'm no perfect putting them together.

Oh, and I ended up making up new alerons, rutter and elevator. It's kinda cheep how they didn't cut angles on the tips of the support pieces so they fit snugly. They cut 90d angles on them, fit them in and CAed them in like that. Kinda lazy if you ask me.

Looks nice!!!!!! Sounds like you are well on your way. After you log some serious time on this plane this summer move into a really light plane like a knife w/ good power and treat yourself to even more fun, you should be well prepared by then and will really enjoy that.