Hi Guys, Anyone know a source to buy a bubble canopy for a Kaos 60? The plan shows that it's 9 3/4" long. Tower doesn't seem to carry one close to that size. Thanks, Prop

Sig sells both the WWII and the bubble style that will work.

http://www.sigmfg.com/

Click on: Aircraft Accessories > Scale Accessories > Canopies

David

I always used the Sport/Pattern canopy from Wing MFG. They have been making this canopy since the seventies. I install the canopy forward of the leading edge, and put the hatch on the bottom.

http://www.wingmfg.com/Pages/WC3.html

I may have an original canopy from Bridi. If I do, and you're interested, let me know, and I'll drop it in the mail.---Tom

You can get a 10 3/4 inch bubble from Great Planes. Just cut it down a hair.

Have you contacted Bluejay models at www.bridiairplanes.com They might have one.

Thanks for all the resources guys! [8D]

what an outstanding forum. the guys here are absolutely the best. you can't find help this good anywhere of anykind.

david

I have a question somewhat related to this thread:

For you guys who've built Kaos's with AND without canopies, does the canopy help any with the KE performance? In theory, I know it should. Did it cause any coupling? Did coupling get better? Do you think tracking got any worse?

I've built 2 60 size birds and 1 40 size-- all of the "super kaos" variety from RCM plans, and none of them have been very good at holding a KE-- only the really fast ones, and even then they wouldn't climb. KE loops are out of the question, even on the Rossi .61 FIRE with a long Macs pipe. The pipe and header go over the top on that one, so a canopy wouldn't fit anyway in this case.

I left the canopies off mostly cause I know I'd eventually smash one in transit or on the field box, and personally it never bothered me that the plane didn't have a place for a pilot-- hey, it's not even close to scale anyway, right?

What am I missing?

A Kaos will never knife edge, as you have discovered. It was never intended that it could or even should. It took a change in the pattern to drive the change in model design to allow that sort of flying. Having said that, some of the earliest demos of knife edge flight happened way back in the '60's with models like Bosch's `Delphin', one of the first `fishy' fuselaged models with enough side area to accomplish the task, and with reeds too.
Evan, WB #12.

WIND, I have a 10" bubble on my Kaos 60 and it immediately droops in knife edge. I'm told the US60 will knife nicely so there might be a canopy out there that will improve it with a hot motor. The Bluejay DityBirdy canopy is 18.5" and may improve things.
Mike.

Thanks for the note Mike.

I've always thought side area was more important up front (on or ahead of CG) for good knife edge. When I first saw the title of this thread, I thought someone else was pondering the merits of including or NOT including a canopy for similar reasons as I've stated.

The canopy is pretty small, but I wonder how much it really effects things other than just looking nice. I guess it's also a bit too round to act like a stabilizing surface. However, if you look at modern competition planes you often see guys adding tiny fins to the tops of their birds near the canopies to tweak KE response. The thing that confuses me about the (better) Ultrasport KE properties over the Kaos is that any additional side area seems to be at the CG or behind it.

I don't mean to morph the thread too far from it's original purpose. If nobody wants to talk about this here, I'll just go on pondering to myself or start a new thread.

I know the Kaos is a great bird even if it won't KE. I wouldn't have built 3 of them if I didn't love it.

Joe