Lanier Comet .40
 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just acquired a Lanier Comet from my brother-n-law this past weekend. I did some research and dsiscovered that many have had issues with this particular airplane. It has a plastic fuse with wood glued to the insides. The wings and horz/vert fin are foam core. The first thing I would like to do is to build the wing and other control surfaces from balsa. Does anyone have any tips for making this thing airworthy? I plan on using an O.S. 46AX and have dual aileron servos when I build the wing.

RE: Lanier Comet .40
 

Why put that much effort into a bad airplane? The kit only costs about $60. You will spend that much building a new wing for it and the fuselage will still self destruct after a few flights.

It will fly OK for a while if you just build it stock. Then when it starts to fall apart, just throw it away and get something decent.

Jim

RE: Lanier Comet .40
 

Shane,

Years ago when these were the only ARF's available we used to find that the plastic fuselage was prone to cracking due to the in-flight and landing stresses. We had good luck filling the fuselage with spray foam that you use around the house. It's light and really stiffened up the fuselage. If you use sleeve type push rods, the control rods are also supported in the foam and internal support is not needed. Try it and leave every thing else stock.

Paul

RE: Lanier Comet .40
 

JRF,

I realize it's a less than desireable plane, but I take it as a personal challange to make it a halfway decent plane. After all, that's half the fun for me anyways.

PMW,
Thanks for the foam tip. I should be able to start working on it later this week

RE: Lanier Comet .40
 

I understand. Have fun.

BTW; the foam is an excellent idea, but be careful. Some of the expanding foams are a lot heavier than others.

Jim

RE: Lanier Comet .40
 

And some are a lot more aggressive than others. You could literally blow out your fuselage by using that stuff.
I shouldn't criticize tho, I had a Lanier Comet some 27 years ago. Never flew it. Sold it to someone else.

RE: Lanier Comet .40
 

Hm. I had the plastic TR260. 78 flights, never cracked the fuselage. Lost it to a battery failure.

The neat thing was, it flew like it was on rails. A .46 magnum 2-stroke pulled it, not very fast, but it would do fine four-point rolls, inverted flight, cuban 8's and all that stuff. Didn't have enough engine to do knife-edge very long. Stall turns were nice, but there wasn't a lot of vertical.

Best wishes with your Comet.
Dave Olson

RE: Lanier Comet .40
 

Okay.

I have gotten the wings togethber after sanding the dihedral out (the comet was designed for dihedral), I decided to strip away the dihedral and find out what the think symetrical airfols will do. I may put alittle anhedral in this bugger and see what I get.

I also have the balsa strips glued into thier slots using epoxy nd waiting for it to harden before I continue.

I am a little hesitant on installing all my gear until I get a good CG reference. I would much rather atach my radio and engine one at a time to ensure I acheive the goal cg. Nothinh worse than having to dismount my servos/batt/rx to meet CG reqs. I'm keeping my options open for tail-mounted gear.

I have a couple of HB .61's i'm eyeballing if anyone has any info on these engines.


BTW.... Anyone have a specific brand name of foam whjixh will not add too much weight, or explode through my fuse????


-Shane