Well the past winter I have been working on my SIG Kadet Senior (my first plane). I have just finished covering it, and today I was going to take it for a test run, and just taxi it around. So today I glued the stabilizer on. But I noticed that when I glued the elavator on, it is about 1/8" shifted to the left. Not a big deal when it comes to flying, but the color scheme doesn't line up perfect. Then I went to glue the rudder on, and the bottom didn't match up very well so I left it alone. I brought it outside, and when I tried to start it, I was holding onto two pieces of wood on the top, and they both snapped off. Then one of the hinges pulled the wood out of the elavator! So I packed up and went back in.[:@][:@][:@] not to happy either!

If any of you have any opinions or ideas (or any stories of your screw up's) it would be greatly appreciated.

Hmmm I'd check that bottle off CA your using
Also what type of hinge? Sig easy hinges dont just "pull out" if you put any CA anywhere near the hinge



My favorite mess up must have been when I epoxied Blind Nuts into a position that was way wrong for my engine. Thank God for RCU on that one [8D]

Let me run a few TERMS by ya.


Get help.

Start over.

Try again.

Not quite right.

You got troubles.



From the info given I'd say it won't make it out of the pits.

What two pieces of wood broke when you held the plane? How did the elevator pull out? You said "the bottom didn't match up, so I left it alone"...... bottom of what, in relation to what other part? I have built a couple of these, and am building another right now, so I'm familiar with this plane. How can I help?
Jetts

I had a sig easy hinge in my 4* kit that wouldn't glue down.....The other 14 I put on the plane did and that 1 didn't. Ticked me off to because I had to cut the others off the elevator and redo the hinge slots and put all new hinges in. Maybe they have a bad batch.

Well, from the attitude you show, "hmmm, doesn't look quite right, but it doesn't matter" You will have problems. Try to make things right when you build. That is a good start. Get help, like stated above. It will make a big diff. Some experience can help a ton. You may find that your plane is not as bad as you think. Sounds like you need someone to help you with the basics though.

if you use enough 30 min epoxy, it will stay glued together in any position you want I promise.

Btw, don't get too discouraged. Everyone does goofy things, get's something wrong, or breaks something, some of us even admit to them once in a while.

If you have questions, ask em, as specifcally as you can (pictures help), or get local help. In most clubs, if you ask around, you can find someone who will either come over to your place, or have you bring yoru plane over to theirs to help work on it if you are really stuck.

Take your plane down to your local clubs flying site am sure some one will help with the problem and talk you through it.

Well, let's see. Here's the short list of 'mess-ups' with my first kit:

- Spilled lots of thin CA on fuse sides. Managed to attach my left had to the fuse. Fumbled with CA dissolver with my right.
- Used medium CA to attach the veritcal fin (as per the directions in the kit.) CA kicked too soon and the fin was way off center, had to remove the fin (part of the fuse came off with it) and reattach all using 30 minute epoxy.
- Drilled the landing gear block off center and had to bend the landing gear to fit.
- Failed to read the instructions errata and built the tail end of the fuse wrong. Had to dremmel out the area where the rudder hinge attached to the fuse and fashion a balsa plug to CA in its place.
- Had a small panic attack when I realized that I had wasted a bunch over covering since I had cut it out of the roll in a inefficient way and did not want to wait for a week to order more purple monokote which the LHS didn't carry. (I changed my trim scheme.)

There were a bunch of other stupid things that I did. Nothing was impossible to fix. There were so many times that I thought that I would have the ugliest trainer in the world - kinda like the tree in Charlie Brown's Christmas. I was really surprised that after all that my trainer actually flew and looked pretty darn good!

-Matt

Funny how it works out like that. We that build have all had our "experiences". Me included. Too many mistakes to mention...some more bone headed than others but all a pain in the a**. All fixable. You live and you learn.

I should point out that paying attention to detail is the difference sometimes between taking your plane home at the end of the day, or throwing it in the trash bin. Sounds like you may need to get some help with your planes setup. Do you have any friends into rc or is it a solo effort on your part? If you don't have any one to go to for help, you could be in for an expensive and discouraging exercise in futility. Sounds pretty grim...but it is almost a cliche. Alot of people come into and leave this hobby because they don't get the right help when they start. There are so many "things" to know, and a beginner is bound to make mistakes. All mistakes in this hobby have the potential to cause a mishap...which might cost you your plane or worse! Your safety!

Thanks for the help so far, but some of you have what I meant all wrong. When I said "So I just left it", I meant I was going to fix it in the near future, but I wanted to taxi it around.

I did'nt use the Sig easy hinges, I used the plastic with the pin through it. (I think that was my fisrt mistake) I was just told these were better.

I did learn one thing though, not to rush the project!

I think those are better..... I hate CA hinges because of the mess... I'm a newbie too

I just did the same thing with the monokote of my first plane Matt. It's amazing how much I wasted cause of the direction I cut it from. I was lucky though and the LHS had one more roll left.

What glue did you use on the horizontal and vertical stabs? Because if you used epoxy (and you should have), then it needs 24 hours to cure properly.

If you were using pinned hinges, you glued those in with epoxy too right? Because CA won't work with those.
Dennis-

I glued the horizontal stabs with CA, and the hinges with epoxy. That's why the wood ripped out, not because of poor glued.

Please provide a little more info. So far I have that you misaligned the tail feathers, broke two sticks and went inside.

Not a lot to go on.

so far this sounds like a "TROLL".

I've been using the pinned hinges for over 20 years and have never pulled one out. You were right to epoxy them in. The trick with them is to lightly touch the steel pin with a little 3-in-1 oil and let the oil wick down the pin before getting the epoxy out. I know some people will pin these hinges by drilling through each side of the hinge and installing a round toothpick though, gluing, then sanding down flat. Two per side typically. However, I've never done this and have never had one of these hinges pull out. How did you pull one hinge out without pulling all the others on that control surface?
The best advice I can give you is to find someone to do a pre-flight inspection and help take your airplane up and trim it before handing you the controls. Many beginners can make it through this stage, but VERY few will manage to land the airplane in one piece. After going through one flight/one crash for three or four weekends, they get discouraged and find another hobby. Stay with it, but get some help.

Now you're getting the idea. Patience is imperative in this hobby Another thing I've learned from my bone head mistakes, is to read the instructions completely before you even start, then read them again. It sounds cliche, but it helps a great deal. And yes, I have ca'd my middle finger to the inside of a fuse, also among other things, ca'd my hands together, didn't know it, went to reach for my beer, and rip/ouch [X(] really needed the beer then