Well, I've been in and out of this hobby for 15 years, and steadily back in for the last two. I reacquainted myself with rc flight with a GWS cub, then a tiger moth, both of which are still flying, albeit in heavily modified form. The cub is my everyday flyer, with a clipped wing with spruce spar, and EPS100C running on 3s li-po. It can climb at up to about 80*, snap rolls, loops, and spins like you wouldn't believe, and I routinely fly it in winds up to about 12-15mph. All this time, I've been quietly accumulating more kits and engines, etc than I know what to do with...two norvels, two OS, a fox and so on. I finally finished building a sig kadet LT-25 to employ the fox .40, but I've been dreading the maiden flight, which would have happened this weekend but for the wind. I'm trying to do things the smart way, and have a trim flight done by one of the club 'instructors', and at the least ahve them on hand to grab the Tx if I screw up the first flight or two. Am I worrying too much about this? How hard is it transitioning from 2 years of flying parkflyers into flying glow power? I ask because my father, who's at about the same experience and skill level as myself, transitioned into his telemaster w/o help, had no problems(other than depth perception--flew into the treetops once, claiming he thought the plane was closer), and is encouraging me to follow suit. However, I'm not buying it. See, this way, if someone else wrecks it on the maiden, I can be mad at them instead of myself. I should add, all surfaces and linkages have been checked and re-checked, low rates and expo dialed in for good measure (just as a starting point), and there's no real reason, ie warpage, etc, that it should be significantly out of trim. Yikes, sorry for the long post.

Hi Matt,

In my personal opinion, you are worry too much about it. Yes, you will see some speed increase, and some different flight characteristics (at various speeds) due to the heavier wing loading. However, the sticks works the same, they just have to be moved 2-3 times quicker. If you are flying "ahead" of your current airplanes rather than "behind" them (just keeping it off the ground while you throw the sticks around) it sounds like you will do just fine!

My only concern is that you will be sorry you didn't go to something a little more aerobatic (like a clipped wing cub) rather than the kadet.

Well, it's better to hear I'm worrying too much than "you'll crash......". I should clarify that I've put in more than a few hours on realflight, and have no problems flying and landing the pt-40 with a little wind, and the t-6 and 182 I'm working with also aren't bad (I'm sure they're harder to fly in real life...).

Hi Matt,
Where do you fly near Andover? I once lived in Sparta near Lake Mohawk. I used to fly full scale out of the Aeroflex and Trinca airports. I still get up there once in awhile to visit my Aunt.

I fly both a GWS cub and an assortment of glow planes. I find the Cub way underpowered compared to the glow planes. They are different enough that I would recommend to be safe you find an instructor with a buddy box setup for your first flight.

I made the transition from parkflyers to glow power with no big problems. I flew park flyers for two years and have about 12, 6 are GWS kits. The biggest difference is how much faster the glow planes go. Just be careful on your first couple of landings and you should be ok. I went with an Avistar w/os 46fx which is a trainer for my first glow plane and I am very happy with it. It's pretty cool holding on to the tail and throttling up and feeling the power[>:] Good luck!!

Chris

JPMacG:

I practically grew up at trinca. My father has partnerships in three planes there, and I hung around there many hours as a kid. Right now I'm doing ground school, so I may fly full-scale from there too, if I can ever afford lessons! In answer to your comment about the cub being underpowered, that's why I put a geared 280 motor on it. . I fly in the field behind my parent's house (small stuff) and at the waterloo field (top o nj club). I do plan on having someone there for the first flight, but I've never seen a buddy box in use at our field, so it'll be "I don't got it--take the transmitter!" Least, that's the way I've seen it done here.

Hi, dont worry about the speed, just buy a Great Planes MK2 0.40 trainer, its really easy to fly and you can flight very slow with it. I personaly have one, and i just love it, when u got more experiense, is easy too looping, rools and even inverted flight

Scolpit
Portugal

You should have no problems flying the LT they are great fliers. Alot of the guys in my club have Sig trainers and they all fly great. I started flying park fliers and then moved on to gliders. My friend gave me a PT 60 trainer and I flew it the first time that I tried with no help. I had been flying for about 2 years with gliders and electric planes prior to trying the trainer. Since that first day with the trainer I have had no problems. I have had about 15 glow planes everything from 1/4 scale to combat planes. Go for it I think you are worrying to much and think that you will be just fine. It will be easyier than you think.

Rick

I'm another one that went from flying parkflyers to glow planes. I made a huge jump going straight into a 4*60 with a TT91FS. My first flight was awesome. The plane took off after rolling about 10 feet and climbs completely vertical at 3/4 throttle. I think you'll be fine. The difference in power, size and weight are quite a jump, but just back down the throttle if things get a little hairy. I'm sure your glow plane will fly slower than you think. Good luck.

I don't think you will have a problem at all...I learned on G2, then went and fly my LT...was stupid but flew it 20 times before I had a problem on a take off...the LT flys super slow and floats great..I wouldn't be worried about the speed and if it does seem fast, that thing will putt around on like 10% throttle...let loose a little, you already have the orientation stuff down, that is the hard part.

OH AND HAVE FUN !!

You shouldn't have too much to worry about, just make sure that the instructor gives the plane a thorough inspection before anyone tries to fly it. Take the instruction manual so that the balance point can be double checked at the field.

Once the plane is in the air, the use of the aileron/elevator in the turns makes the plane behave in a similar way to having the rudder/elevator on the right stick with the 3 channel electrics. The plane will fly a bit faster than the park flyers especially as you've put a .40 in a .25 sized plane but at least you'll have plenty of power which is good on a trainer plane

The biggest dfference will be in the take offs and landings. I've flown a trainer into the trees myself, this is because as the plane is bigger you tend to place it further away than you think. You can get around this by practising flying the plane closer to yourself above tree top hight.

I'm assuming you did build the LT-25 as a tail dragger, this might make landings a little easier as you don't have to worry about digging the nose wheel in. The take off's will take a little practice though, make sure that you have a steerable tail wheel on the plane then you can keep it straight by holding in up elevator to keep the tail on the ground until the plane has built up flying speed.

Matt,
That's quite a coincidence about Trinca. I took lessons there and soloed on Pete Billow's Piper J3 in about 1973. Pete and a lady (forget her name - maybe Rhonda) were the two instructors at Trinca. I think Pete might have owned the airport at that time. My dad was a partner with two airline pilots on another J3, which they kept at Trinca. Later he a Cessna 150 and kept it there for several years.

I read a few years ago that the airport had been sold and would be turned into a housing development. I hope that plan fell through.

Regards,
Jon

Jon,

Check your PM.

-Matt

Follow up:

I took the Kadet over to my club field Sat. morning and it was packed! After a worktable became open, I set up and started talking to a few guys(who showered me with compliments on the covering job). They recommended I speak with one particular gentleman. After a brief conversation with him, I did a surface deflection and range check, fired up the fox, and the gentleman took 'er off. She climbed like a rocket. After he trimmed out the Kadet, he turned over the controls, and I flew around for 10 minutes--let me say, it's a little nervewracking to spend your maiden flight on a whole new type of airplane sharing airspace with a 1/4 scale Quickee, a 1/4 scale nieuport with smoke, and another trainer. However, I did just fine. I even managed to carry on a conversation with the instructor about how long I'd been flying, why I bought a fox engine, etc. BTW, the engine does not idle reliably, and the plane only needs about 1/3 throttle for fast level flight--kind of a dilemma. So, he asked if I wanted to land it, and my reply was, "I've got to learn sometime, eh?". As I turned from base to final, the fox quit, and I glided her in for a (in my eyes) perfect dead-stick wheel landing. Not even a bounce. Two guy even applauded the landing. In retrospect, I was definitely making a mountain out of a molehill. I found the kadet is actually easier (except maybe in dead calm air) to fly than my GWS cub. It goes exactly where you tell it, rather than where the wind tells it. So, now I'm all set--I just need an engine that will idle without quitting. My only regret is that I didn't do this sooner! Here's a post-flight picture:

Great story, thanks for sharing the update. Looks like you have a nice one there.

IF the engine is brand-new, then don't sweat the idle. As the engine breaks in, the idle will improve dramatically.

You can also start messing with the idle mixture setup on the engine. I don't know what kind of carb that engine has, but you should check the instructions, and see if there is a local engine guru to help.

Montague,

Thanks for the input. The engine is actually ten years old or so--I bought it to go on a fanboat I had, and it sat in the basement for years. It probably has a half gallon of fuel through it in total. It has the mkII, two needle carb--I used all the info from the fliteline solutions page to get it set up approximately right. The concensus seems to be that foxes take a long time to break in, and still may not idle too well. The guys at my field suggested I put an OS .25 FP on it, but I'm not about to give up on the fox yet. I really don't feel like figuring out how to mount a different engine on this airframe[:'(].

Ah, that makes sense. I just found out that an engine just out of long term storage might not idle well either. Just this weekend, I got my 12+yr old OS .61FS running again. It's been in storage for around 10years. The first flight, I wasn't getting much power, and the idle was pretty sad. I was worried I was going to have to tear down the engine (something I usually try to avoid). But after the 2nd flight, it was running as well as I remember it ever running, with a much lower and more reliable idle.

So, I'd give the fox more time good luck.

not sure if this was said, dotn have tim to read all posts, but no you worry too much, however, a .40 on a LT25 is a little bit overkill dont you think? with the flat wing and all, your never gonan get it down. plus from what i gatehr you have an older plane probably a great deal stronger than the 25 so you may want to be carful, its a trainer not an aerobatic.

my 3.5 cents

That IS great news Matt. Thanks for keeping us posted on things.
Dennis-

Congratulations Matt! Welcome to slimy flight! You're gonna have a lot of fun.