Hey guys I thought I would share some pics of my SK. Someone gave it to me with the fuse and wing built and covered and my wife and I covered, hinged and installed the stabs and other equipment.
I used a pin hinge method with the hinges made of G10 and a 2-56 control rod for the pin.

I installed a Thunder Tiger 60 Pro with a gallon of fuel ran through it for $65. Unfortunately the mount was drilled for a TT 60 GP which has a shorter shaft and I have a 3/8" or less gap behind the spinner but SPA is in a couple weeks so I need to wait to make any changes.
The engine, fuel tank, and landing gear were installed then a preliminary weight and balance was done and it was way nose heavy so I installed the servos in the rear. I used two elevator servos for the extra weight.

WOW!

Very nice indeed.

Brian

Thanks Brian.

I just got back from the maiden flight...WOW!
If the S.K. flew that well, I can't wait to see how the Dirty Birdy and others fly.
At just under 7 lbs it was a different feel than the Atlas I flew at around 10 lbs.
Anyway, I won't bother with the flight details because 'someone' didn't take any photos and my buddy was calling out the sequence for SPA.

When I got the Kaos it didn't have ailerons so I made my own out of soft balsa and then I glassed them with 2 oz glass and vacuum bagged them to make them stiffer. My wife found out how well iron on covering sticks to glass that was applied with peel ply...much better than to balsa.
Here's a picture of them in the bags on a 3/8" glass sheet with weights to make sure they're straight.

(Finished photos later).

Tim

Tim,

Your G-10 hinges are intriguing. Do you have any up close photos?

Ralph

Sure I can but I don't have any in the assembly stage except the Macchi but it's not my design.
Here's the hinge I cut for the Kaos




Here's another shot with some still on the stick before they have been cut out and trimmed. Use an old blade (because when you're done the blade will be trashed anyway) on a band saw works the best. I keep one old blade around just for cutting G-10.




Here's the one Ed Newman designed for the Macchi 200 (which seems to be parked while I get my pattern fix). In his design he uses a much smaller wire through the yellow plastic inner rod from a Golden Rod. Then it is glued into the wood hing. The thin opaque sheeting above and bellow the wood hinge is .012" G-10 I used to create a cove.




On a wing or stab I design I leave enough material to cut a cove in the trailing edge with a sharpened brass tube the size of the leading edge of the control surface. I then gouge the wood out then wrap sand paper around the brass tube or the LE of the control surface and sand it to the right fit.

For the control surface (let's say an elevator) I leave the front flat and then add a cap strip which I sand round for the LE of the elevator. You will need to cut a trough in the elevator and the cap strip half the height of the carbon fiber tube you will use to run the wire in (the wire runs through the control surface then through the hinge which is attached to the stab). To do this you have to use a router to cut a groove half way into the elevator and half way into the cap strip. The picture shows the 1/8" router bit with a piece of balsa that would be a cap on the front of the elvator.



Once the trough is made you epoxy in a piece of carbon fiber rod (see photo and pretend there is a trough)



Then put some epoxy on the cap strip and glue it all together. Now round off the leading edge.

I'll make a better demo when I do the Dirty Birdy but from here you would locate where you want the hinges, cut the LE of the elevator with the band saw (make it the width of the G-10 hinge so it will slide in) the rod then slides through the tube of the elevator, then through each of the hinges so they dangle. Mark the corresponding hinge locations on the stab, cut the stab (or drill a slot) in the trailing edge. Now use tape on LE of elevator and TE of stab, put epoxy in the TE of the stab where you made the slots, slide the elevator/hinge assembly into the slots, tape it all together and let it dry.

Tim,

Do you make your own G10 material?

If so, can you tell us how, if not, can you tell us where to purchase it?

Did you use the golden rod material in the black hinge material? (I''m guessing you did.)

I am still at a point I can do this with my Super Kaos (Only mine has trike retracts!!! ) and wish to do this.

Thank you for sharing this with us!

Brian

The Super Kaos in this article is absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing your good fortune with us.

At 7 lbs. as currently configured, your SK would fly great with a lighter weight OS .55, Magnum .52 or Enya .45 thru .61CX and one less elevator servo. However, I'm sure that it flies great just as you have built it. I envy you.


Ed Cregger

I also use 0.010" for sheeting on scale models over ribs and I tried a new method of sandwiching it between balsa before I sanded my ailerons on the Dirty Birty. Below is the end of an aileron without the cap strip but I drew in a red box for the trough and a black dot to represent the carbon tube so you get an idea of what I'm doing. The G-10 gave me something to sand to, provides dent resistence to the aileron, and makes it a BIT stiffer. I think once I glass the aileron it will be super stiff; plus, putting the control horn in the middle should allow for almost no flex. You will need to put just some stock aileron material on the router fence to help stabilize the aileron.





Sources:

1/16" G10 http://www.mcmaster.com/#grade-g-10-garolite/=bx1jru
Or Frank Tiano carries all of it and you don't have to hunt for it http://www.franktiano.com/scaleproduct.htm . I haven't ordered anything from him because I just found out he had the stuff so I might try Frank next.
Fliteskin is another option for the thinner material but at the time I think they were changing owners but I had a not so pleasant experience http://www.fliteskin.com/G10page.htm . They may have the bugs worked out but if I have time to spare I might try them again.

I agree with Ed, it really needs the OS 55 so you don't have to move everything to the back but if you're using a 61 that's what you'll have to do.
I have an OS 55 NIB but I figured I'd save it for the Dirty Birdy.

I don't like that the carburetor is so high above the fuel tank. I sealed the exhaust halves so maybe it will have a bit more back pressure. I'll probably end up putting a Jet exhaust on it.

I can't remember who's thread I was reading, maybe Brian's, but it said the Kaos should set on it's tail when the tank is empty...the guys at the field thought that was funny but he was right.

I don't know if I made the gear too tall but I'll give it a chance and see how it tracks. When I got it the fuselage and wing were covered but the covering stripes didn't match so I restriped the wing. I ghought about replacing the canopy but I'll use this as an everyday flier so it's fine.

BTW, those aren't two air compressors, one is a vacuum system I made from an old compressor tank. Makes it really nice to wheel it around the shop or take it to a friends.

Rangerman,

Awesome looking plane. You've gotta love a Kaos.................

David

Tim,

sweet! And a Kraft sticker to boot! [8D]

David.

I know, if I ever get a vinyl cutter I want to make some Kraft paint masks.
I actually had one of the gold Kraft radios. I might have to find it and bring it to the pattern contest and tell everyone I'm using it to fly...see how many of them run for cover.

You mean like this...?

Take it to the contest - you might be surprised.

Check this out:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10371943/tm.htm

[8D]

David.

That's the one!

Bump!

The hinging is so amazing... I had to bring it to the top again!

Thanks for sharing this technique, Rangerman.

Brian

Indeed.

Tim, why are your servos all the way in the back? Is that Magnum that heavy?

David.

David,

That's a Thundertiger and yes, it's got a lot of junk in it's trunk to have a grill that nice.

I think I may have some issues with it. When I do a stall turn it I have to use aileron input. Is this normal?

Tim

I took the Super Kaos to the Cowtown Classic SPA Pattern event yesterday. What a great day!
The stall turn problem presented itself again but after the first round I knew what to expect so I had to remember to throttle down to get it to stall, run the throttle back to half and kick in rudder and the same direction of aileron...I know it's weird but it does a perfect stall turn.

The fourth round is when I had a problem. I think I just finished the 1/2 cuban and when I leveled out it started to climb on it's own so I knew I had elevator issues. The elevator while in a bank was really mushy. The whole time I was thinking the hinges failed and I was glad there were two elevator servos. I was afraid to turn base to final fearing that I may not be able to control it so I kept the base straight into a nicely manicured grass area and made a smooth landing. When I got to the plane I found the covering came off the horizontal stab and folded over the elevator making the elevator on that side useless. When I covered it I knew the white and red were cut too small and didn't overlap so when the black trim came off that was it for the covering. Plus it was over a glue line. I was rushing to get it done in time and when my helper cut the paper to where there was a gap between the two colors I knew it wasn't right but I didn't go back and finish it.


We were told we were taking the best of 4 rounds and drop the lowest so I was in the clear, but then they said we are flying 5 rounds...crap! I won the first two so after I heard this I thought I was sunk...but thanks to a role of Scotch boxing tape I found in my car I was able to clean the fuel off and tape it up. My 5th round flight started off good but after nailing the stall turn the rest was down hill from there and I knew I had a good chance of winning.





I managed to win the 5th round with the best flight I had of the day, tape and all. Maybe because I was too concerned with the tape coming off and crashing that I didn't over-think the maneuvers.

The drawings for the pilots at the end was AWESOME. Several kits were given away including a Super Kaos. Then I won a Futaba hat which I put back in the drawing because I don't use Futaba so my buddy Gene one it. Well the last drawing of the day I won this:



And I asked for my hat back HAAA!
I took the radio home and my wife took it from me, what could be better than that. Now she has a 2.4 MHZ radio.

They also made some great looking plaques. My club took all top three spots out of 5 in B-Novice...ok, my club was the only one in the class (our first year) and two didn't fly but have a look at the plaques:



They had someone take our photos, go get them developed, print up the plaques and assemble it all by the time the drawing was over; how cool is that.


Steve and the Thunderbirds did an awesome job. Many thanks to Gary Alphin for believing in me to call for him in...man, I hadn't even seen the B-Novice routine till two weeks prior and the wind prevented practicing except for three or four days so calling for a Sportsman level was difficult in that I wanted to see what the maneuver looked like but I fought the urge and kept the routine in order. I've got to say that was one of my highlights.
The weather was beautiful, the conversation great, the companionship overflowing...can't wait till the next event.

Tim

Tim,

great story!

Congrats on a fine flying job and for holding steady while facing a challenge.

Looks like your wife now has some control for that Tiger she's building!

Well done.

David.

excellent update, thx and congrats.

Great job.... !! Maybe we will see you at a Classic Pattern (CPA) event in TX..

scott

PS: If your wife likes to monokote planes I have a bunch of projects

Great news on the event but too bad about the covering. That is highly unusual that MonoKote would come unbounded like that even with a butt joint. Epically if the black MonoKote strip was ironed down well.

Hey Scott,
I think I'm registered with CPA but not SPA. I think I'm going to stick locally this year but I would like to try CPA as well. I mean no disrespect but CPA seems to be more organized than SPA, maybe a novice observation.

No more monokote! I think if we would have overlapped the red and white then put the black stripe down it would have been fine. Tonight she said she had to go over everything I did because it was coming up...hea, so she does a better job!

I've got to go get back on the Dirty Birdy then on to the Cutlass mold but I'll update when something else transpires.

Tim

The SPA is a wonderful, worthwhile, organization, but the CPA is a bit more honest to design in how they allow their competitive airplanes to be built. It is hard to beat retracts and pipes on aircraft that were designed for them, especially prior to 1976.

You can participate in both without retribution. As a CPA member, I'd encourage it.

Just saying...

Brian