i hear a buch of you guys talk about the NEXSTAR, TOWER TRAINERS,HOBBICO,etc.some even talk about the SIG LT-40,LT-25,SENIORITA,KADET MARK II, as good trainers. how come no one talks about the SIG KADET SENIOR?? this is my first plane that i owned,built from scratch and hopfully will fly this spring. it's got a GMS .47 motor, FUTABA s3304 servos,FUTABA 7-channel rec. and a FUTABA 6EXA controller. the only reason its not in the air yet is because i just ordered REAL FLIGHT G2 and i want to put in some mega sim time first!!! is the SENIOR a good first plane?? i would love to hear your comments.

The Senior is a great flying plane! I think it is not mentioned too much because you have to build a kit. Most people want to start with ARFs these days. I flew a senior with a student about three years ago and it was great! Big, slow, gentle flying plane. And his just had a .35 for power! And no ailerons! Couldn't believe how slow it would fly on landing approaches! I think you'll like it.

The Sig Kadet Senior is arguably the most successful trainer in RC history and is a delightful airplane capable of far more than just training. They work well in the kit version without ailerons or modified with. There also is an arf version with less dihedral and ailerons.

Beyond flight training they are ideal:

Night flyers
cross country airplanes
float planes
multi engine conversions (two and more engines)

Repairs are very simple with the stick structure and the Senior has been bashed by someone, somewhere in every conceivable configuration possible even tailless.

If It sounds like its and old favorite of mine then that is true, Here is my eighteen year old one:

Search for " Sig Kadet Senior " by JDAVIS, 5/25/04. Much discussion on ailerons, flaps, diehedral, weight.

I have practiced with a Real Flight Deluxe Simulator & found I had a tendency to prolong my glides on landing. This led to stalls, bounces, & crashes. It was nice to learn & correct this at a terminal instead of at a flying field. I suspect that each student might be helped in a different way by a sim. Sims are expensive and of limited value, but I think it would be helpful if a club would obtain one (even used from E-Bay) for students to practice during winter months.

The Sig Senior is a great first plane! I think the reason they aren't used more is because of the price, in ARF form, $200.00. They still fly well with a low powered engine, like an O.S. LA 40.

I got the privilage to maiden a Senior the other day! What a great plane! This thing flew awesome, It had ailerons and a ST .45 the only problem I had with it was to get th danged thing down! It just wanted to keep on floating! I finally had to Dial in about 10 degrees of flaps and stretch my glide WAY out.. The problem turned out to be the Idle was a tad High as the engine was not fully broken in.. A Large Dia. and low pitch prop fixed that! I think I'd like to have one for myself

Hey

I think the Avistar is a great first plane.


Ed

HEY,

WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THE SIG KADET SENIOR HERE!


P.S. DO YOU GUYS HAVE ANY PICS OF YOUR SENIORS?

The only one that may be the Kadet Senior for floating and teaching new pilots would be a telemaster. Both are real floaters and fly on comparably smaller engines. I had a .46 SF on my Kadet, several years ago, and loved it. It was all yellow and so easy to see for miles around. Hope you enjoy yours as much as most of us enjoyed ours, back when they only had three channels.

I learned with the senior and had it until last year(a control rod came loose, my fault) I had just recovered it, made it a tail dragger and put a 61 on sideways with custom cowl. It had reduced dihedril and servos for each airlaron. I flew wonderfully. I even did an outside loop with it.
I am in the process of scratch building another with simi semerical wing ribs........clipped wings and some other goodies.
I have a 40 Telemaster with floats an flaps, a great plane, BUT not as good a trainer as the Sr. Kadet.

Hey Bigbird,

Thats just the nature of RC. Everyone has thier own opinion. You will find guys here on the universe that love the senior. I like the junior myself. You have a great plane there. Not to worry. The senior isn't marketed as much as some of the other trainers. That might be one reason you have observed more discussion of other trainers. And some people live in places that are windy and make the senior difficult.

I have the G2 sim also. Love it, love it, love it. The wind on the G2 doesn't seem realistic. This past weekend I flew in winds that were 14 gusting to 20. It wasn't bad. But type that in the G2 and try to land !!!! Dang near impossible. Especially with a crosswind.

Other than that, the G2 is a great way to learn. You might even outgrow your senior before you fly it.

Always hang on to your first plane. If it crashes, save the tail. When you are old, it will be a great momento.

I learned on a Kadet Senior. Flew the heck out of it and still have it, in very good condition. Check out my Kadet at http://community.webshots.com/album/2024822VAMpbLOVAu/1 and http://community.webshots.com/album/65052672ydAUZw

Great model.

Tom

Fine! While the Senior is a nice flying plane and will fly very slowly making it easier to learn to fly on it does have one big problem as a trainer! To keep the plane design very light, the fuselage is made of criss crossing sticks which come apart easily in a crash. This also makes it tedious and time consuming to repair in the case of a hard landing. And if you should hit a fence post, well you might as well start over! An LT40 or Avistar on the other hand are very sturdy craft which can tolerate heavy landings and bumps because the fueslage is made of plywood and the overall design is very strong.

Yeah, the Senior Kadet is probably one of the lightest Wing Loadings: 12 oz./sq. ft, of any .40 size trainer on the market. That is how it can fly slow. I never had a crash with mine, maybe a poor landing, but never crashed it. It will slow down, but what I think may be the real problem with it is, on a windy day, it's just too hairy to try to fly it. Many times I had to execute good judgement and just not fly because of high winds. I crashed my Avistar way too many times for me to remember. Wind loading is much higher, flies better on those windy days, but cracks up as good as any other model I've had. I actually hit a fence post with my Avistar, the wing was a mess, but I was able to rebuild. I don't think any plane does too well when it hits something as stationary as a concrete fence post, like I did. But I also liked my Avistar and brought it back from the dead more than most would have. My g/f built a LT-40, but we really haven't had the chance to fly it that much.

Get experienced help on those first flights and to check out the plane, and the Kadet Senior is a winner. At least in my book it is.

Good flying,

Tom