SIG (Herr Engineering) Little Something Extra
 

Last week, I picked up a Sig (Herr Engineering) Little Something Extra. I looked at it at the LHS and saw that it was a pretty nice little aircraft. It was set up for a .10 glow engine, had this little four ounce tank. Pretty neat. It came with some basic instructions about conversion to electric, but no recommendations on what motor to use.

It weighed in at about 15 ounces without motor/battery combination, so I thought that an E-Flite Park 400 brushless inrunner and gearbox would work out ok. The only gearbox I had was a 6.6:1 so I fabricated a motor mount and put the thing together that way. I had to put the battery, a 1700 mah 3 cell LiPo, as far forward as I could get it so that the CG was ok.

On Sunday, I attempted to fly it. It had plenty of static thrust (holding it in my hand and running up the motor) so I thought it would fly ok. Well, it would not take off on the ground, mainly because the grass was a tad to tall, the prop kept hitting the grass. So, I opted to hand launch it.

I had a friend hand launch it for me, gave it a pretty good throw. It wallowed around and did not fly very well at all. It obviously needed more power. So, I landed it and decided to re-motor the thing.

The problem is, the only motor I had with sufficient power was an E-Flite Power 10 that I had on my Brio. It required the 40 amp controller and I used the same battery. This is probably over-power but it's all I have that is big enough. This motor is a tad bit heavier than the Park 400 so I may be able to put the battery ON the CG which will make things much easier when I am ready to fly it. This motor/ESC combination really pulls this fuselage around, lots more thrust (pulls like hell when I hold the thing). It was way to late and the weather turned to crap so I have not yet put it in the air with this new motor/ESC combination. When I do, I will report on it.

As for the model, well, it couldn't be simpler to build... wing is one piece so no assembly there. I had to CA the hinges, mount the servo's, CA the elevator then install the horizontal stab followed by the rudder then CA the rudder hinges. Installation of the servo's for the elevator and rudder was a simple task. There are guide tubes installed and each control surface has it's own control rod that came in at just about the right length. I applied the Z-bend on the servo side, and managed to adjust things right (it has a V bend also for minute adjustments) and an L bend at the control horn, with a small keeper to prevent it from coming apart. With a little patients and about 15 minutes, both the rudder and elevator were pretty much in trim and ready to fly.

I used the HiTec 55's for all four control surfaces (two aileron and one each for the elevator and rudder) as called for in the instruction manual. That was it. It took me all of a half hour to fabricate the motor mounts, both of them.. one for square stick mount for the Park 400 and the other for the outrunner. I simply cut out the existing motor mount rails to accomodate room for the outrunner, then measured and drilled holes in the firewall for 6-32 blind nuts and a 1/2 inch spacer from the firewall to the motor mount (the one that comes wth the motors) and that was just about it.

I used a GWS 72MHz micro receiver. I MAY.... may... replace that with a standard receiver, depending on how this thing flys when I have time to fly it.

I will have more on this when I finally fly it with the new power system.

DS.

RE: SIG (Herr Engineering) Little Something Extra
 

Good review and electric conversion suggestion:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=380802

There are videos of electric flight on the page as well.

RE: SIG (Herr Engineering) Little Something Extra
 

I have the Herr SE and just love it. But it needs some serious power to really get the grin factor up!

You can see my review (posted above) and see that it does very well with the MPJet motor and 10x7 prop. On 3s LiPoly I am pulling about 23 amps.

It goes very nicely with that setup.

I think the power 10 would be perfect. Just prop it for 22-25 amps and I think you will be very happy. This will keep you with a 25-30amp ESC too. I use 3s 2100 Thunder Power packs.

In fact the higher kV of that motor will help. That 10x7 is really large, and even when I scooted the motor up a bit it only has 1/2" clearance. I would suspect your motor will use a 8x6-9x6 prop to get you in that amp range. That will be better for the short gear the plane has....

Even with my heavy motor (about the same weight as the power 10) I need the battery right up against the firewall.

My review has all those details - but the SE planes are just about my favorite RC fliers ever. The 40 size ship was likely my all time favorite RC plane....not bad as I have been doing this for a few years now!

Let me know how it flies with that motor!

Mike

RE: SIG (Herr Engineering) Little Something Extra
 

New to the site snd just found your post. Did the plane fly better with the second power source?
I converted mine using an AXI 221234 and a 3 cell 1500 battery. I cut the bottom out of the nose to mount the battery against the firewall to get the CG correct. With a 3 cell 1320 battery, it was tail heavy and very sensitive to pitch control. I used a 9x6 prop and take off from grass (I removed the wheel pants as they clog easily). Plane flies great. Not 3D but very aerobatic: inverted, tumbles, spins. Fun touch and goes on windy days. In 1 year, only 1 mishap. Ripped off the LG on a very gusty day resulting in a very hard landing. A little epoxy and good as new.