mike109

G'day

The Sig Kadet trainers are some of the best around. My particular favourite is the kit version of the Kadet Senior. And as a result I have three. The most recent build is about two years old and until a week or so ago, it had a Saito 90 R3 radial glow engine. I put the Saito into the Kadet to get to know the engine and I discovered that it is a nice sounding engine that makes very little power so for the time being it is back in its box.

I have two other Kadets Senior. One, which is now about 10 years old, has a Saito 62 and is my favourite model for teaching newbies the basics. The other has a modified wing with barn door ailerons and a Laser 70 four stroke engine. So I decided to try to make on into an electric powered model.

I chose a Turnigy G46 550kVa motor as I already had it and I used an APC 13 x 8 electric prop. The speed controller is a Turnigy Plush 60 Ampere one and the batteries I have been using are two 4 cell (14x8 Volt) 5000mAh Turnigy batteries.

The Kadet has plenty of room inside and so I cut a hatch in the bottom and the battery hangs from the bottom of what was the fuel tank mount with Velcro and some Velcro straps around it. The speed controller is next to the battery. Nothing gets even vaguely hot despite minimal cooling (which I will improve) as the speed controller is rated at 60 Amperes but the motor is only drawing 29 Amperes with a totally fresh battery.

So how did it fly?

Better than I expected. She has about the same performance as my oldest did when it had a Saito 56. Take off was quite short and the climb is steeper than I expected. Once up to cruising height I reduced power to about half and with a little up trim she was happily cruising around and not loosing altitude. With power increased she would loop easily and could be tossed around.

After a 15 minute flight we tested the battery with a meter that shows what percentage of the total is left and she still had 40% available so a 20 minute flight would have been easily possible and still have had some power left.

After the first flight I did a second with a second battery and spent some fun time doing touch and goes. Great fun. I was also chased by a pelican and a large eagle but both soon lost interest and went on their way.

Hope this is of some help to some people. We are finding that electric conversions are very convenient for their ease of use, convenience, and total lack of cleaning up. I won't be getting rid of my Saitos though.

Cheers

Mike in Oz

carl24bpool

Electric does sound much easier and cleaner but some people are probably like me and love the sound of an engine whizzing by.

That and there is the added bonus with petrol that you can just refuel and away you go with no recharge. Those Lipos are quite expesive for big ones and to have 5 or six would be a lot of charging to mess abount with.

Which power do you prefer? petrol of batteries

Top_Gunn

My Feedback: (6)

Yeah. Few things in RC are more fun than listening to a four-cycle engine rev up when you're doing touch-and-goes! And the Kadet Senior is the perfect plane for this (especially if you build the wing with ailerons and reduced dihedral).

mike109

G'day Carl. I do actually prefer glow but electric is great for small models and has advantages when you just want to grab a model and go and have a couple of flights.

You are right about fuel being easier for multiple flights though the really organised among us manage to fly all day with just a few batteries, a good charger, and a car with a large battery.

Cheers

Mike

mike109

G'day Top I have two other Kadets Senior. Both have four strokes and one has a modified wing with ailerons and less dihedral (about half the normal amount). I like flying them all but I actually prefer flying the non-ailerons ones.

They do require a different flying style. Without ailerons, they MUST be taken off straight into the wind or they get turned over by the wind. If you are really quick and use lots of power, you can get away with not being straight into the wind but as soon as she leaves the ground, she has to turn into the wind.

Landing is not such a problem even with quite a large cross wing as the plane tends to yaw into the wind. You just need to turn into the wind at the last moment to prevent her turning over.

I am about to charge one of the batteries (the other was charged overnight) and head out again today. I am also going to take my Flyin' King with its OS 95V four stroke.

Cheers

Mike in Oz

PS This exact same engine/prop/battery setup is being used here in a much modified VMAR Extreme Stick (low wing stick with shortened wings) with great success so it will probably work in many forty size models. The higher revving version of the G46 motor (there are three - 420, 550 and 670 kv) may be better if you want to go faster on fewer cells.

foodstick

The big batteries are coming down in price, and I have 4 or five planes I use the same big batteries in, that keeps it pretty cost effective.

P.S. Loving my E powered Sig Senior as well !

Eindecker_pilot

Hi Foodstick,
What motor, prop, & battery combination are you using on your electric Sig Senior?

thanks,
Greg