It looks great, please take some video when you fly it!  I would be interested to hear how the actual model flies as compared to the RealFlight sim of the ST-A.

Very clever Jaybird, that should work out nicely. The Ryan has really cleaned up well and is looking a lot better now with some TLC. Good Job. I am now working on the same with mine. I am in the process of joining the two wheel pants together.

Here is a shot of the rear cockpit wall cover thatI fit earlier. It is not epoxied in placeas I will paint it before installing it permamently. I will be installing onlythe back of the seat to this wall later as I will need access to the on/off charge jackswitch that I located at the bottom of the cockpit floor.

Your not going to put a pilot in?

Gotta have a pilot in a open cockpit plane.
Later!!
Anthony

I could install just the upper torso/bust of a pilot only as the pull-pull cables are in the way. I could get creative with I suppose a magnet that would allow me to remove the pilot to have access to the switch, we'll see...

Or a type of Velcro.

I like that stiff 3M "Velcro" that is used on the Speed Pass on your windshield.

I normally do what most do when it comes time to installing plastic parts such as cowls and wheel pants that are supplied in the kit. Pitch them for a higher quality and quicker fiberglass substitute. I did exactly that on the cowl but on the wheel pants and spats I have decided to give the "original" supplied by kit a try. So here I go let's see how they'll turn out.
<u>
Part 1 Wheel Pant Fabrication
</u>The journey begins with the selection of wheels for the plane. You can see thatI have chosen 3-1/2" Sullivan SkyLites. Next I took the wheel pant halves and taped them together so I could transfer the dimension that I wanted to both halves. Using my Dremel tool, I made an opening in the pant halvesnext to but not on the line that I drew. The tape held the halves together well and you can see how they came out. The last photo shows the amount of clearance that I have surrounding the wheel.

Note: The wheel will sit considerably lower in the pant for the final assembly.

VJ,

They look great so far. I will be interested to see how the rest of the assembly and mounting goes. The builder of mine added a bracket to the gear wire with nuts soldered to the underside so the pant and lower spat can be removed and the upper spat and upper fairing are bolted to the block under the wing.

I have spent some time removing the radio gear from two planes I plan to remove from my collection. One is a Midwest Super Stearman that I hope to sell and one is a Top Flite SE5a that i hope Owls Head Transportation museum will take as a donation. The Stearman I haven't flown in quite a while and plan to fly my GP WACO-YMF more often. The SE5a has flown but it's a real handful and is very fragile so I think it would be better on display.

I also checked the balance of my Ryan before I started radio installation and found when balanced upside down (which I was told was a good way to balance low wing planes) at 3-3/8" back it is VERY nose heavy. My plan is to mount radio gear and battery are far back in the wing saddle area as I can. Anyone else find their plane to be nose heavy as built?

I have two different pilot busts that I'm thinking of using. The first one looks like me and second one is more WWI type. Hmmmm....

Jaybird

I love going to the Owl's Head Transportation Museum! They have such neat stuff there.http://www.ohtm.org/

<u>Part 2 Wheel Pant Fabrication
</u>After having the bottoms of both wheel pants opened up to receive their respective wheels next was to remove parts PG-6 from the ABS vacuum formed sheets. These are the front wheel caps which are secured to the front of the wheel pant halves.Bonding the ABS plastic together is best accomplished using Acetone. Using a small brush or in my case I used a Q-tip you just flow a few drops of the Acetone under the edges. It will spread along the seams by capilary action. Sort of like sweating copper pipes together. Just hold the pieces for a minute or two and the pieces become bonded together making one. You do have to be careful not to flood the area or you will melt everything! So practicing on some scraps is in order to see just how the Acetone will react to the plastic is wise.

I only secured the front portion of the pants as Imay need to spread the back sections slightly to get the landing gear wire through.

Hi Vincent

I have the exact same kit and intentions. Time, money and my new found passion,flying helis stand in the way. I look forward to seeing your progress. Might even get me started on mine. Like you always liked the style of this aircraft.

Sincerly
Mark
Brooklyn, Ct.

Welcome to the thread Mark. Born in Bridgeport and raised in Trumbull for almost 30 years. Can't place were Brooklyn is...Anyways, I hope that this build gives you the ambition and confidence to start on your own soon.

Just as an alternate method, I've CA'd my ABS parts together after sanding the joints smooth then added a backer strip on the hidden side. Works pretty good; or I've never had one come apart. Interesting thing about SIG kits, the older kits seem to have a thicker plastic type material that the ABS they now use . Have had much better reliability with the older style.

Looking through images here and on the web it looks like there are varying lengths of flap and aileron on each wing. The SIG model flap seems to be about 1/3 the length of the aileron. Pictures of full size and other R/C models (larger scale/different manufactureres) seem closer to the flap and aileron being equal in length. Does anyone know if it the full size varies depending on type and model or year manufacturered? Just curious.

Took mine to a club meeting last night and it got a lot of attention.

Jaybird

Wow, lots of work on those wheel pants having to cut the openings also. My pants for the GP ryan are all one piece and you can get repalcements from Fiberglass Specialties. I never thought of using acetone for a glue, I always used CA and then some fiberglass on the backside. I bet you could use the glue they make for ABSpipe too.

According to my information(THE NEW RYAN by EV Cassagneres) the early models up to S/N 121 had a longer flap(84 1/2") extending through the wing walk area. Flaps on models after(including??) S/N 121 were 67 5/16". The length was reduced on the side closest to the Fuse.

Interesting! The pictures I looked at the flap/aileron separation piont to be almost half span of the wing. It almost came out the the flying wire connection point. The SIG kit doesn't extend that far out. I can see how the flap starts further out from the fuselage though.

Jaybird

Jaybird, paddcat1,

Here is a Photo of the Aileron/Flap set up on N 48587. It matches the Paul Matt drawing except N 48587 has the black walk strips on both side of the fuselage.

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri">Here is a partial 3 view of the type Ryan STA flown by John Gosney, which is the one Sig models. Note flap size.</font></div>

Yes,
Bob Heuer extended the ailerons for acro performance. Then the airplane was sold to Gosney.
Chris...

<u>Part 3 Wheel Pant/Spat Fabrication
</u>What you see are before and after pictures of the wheel pant fairing, in left and right halves for one side. Instead ofbutting the seams together I overlaped the seams as this better duplicates the full scale version. From cutting the halves out of its vacuum formed sheet to what you see in my hand took me the better part of three hours. ( Maybe this is one of the reasons that most opt for the fiberglass completed version.)

Here's a good site http://www.airminded.net/st/st.htmlnice 3 veiws and history of accidents

I was wondering if he had modified the ailerons to get better aerobatic performance. Thanks for the information.

Jaybird

<u>Part4 Wheel Pant/Spat Fabrication
</u>Last nights work was bonded to the wheel pant once again using Acetone.After drying, measurements were taken to determine where the openings within the fairing needed to goto allowthe landing gear wire to pass through.Not bonding the entire perimiter of the wheel pant proved to be a wise move as I did have to spread thehalves apart to slip the landing gear wire through. I still have to solder a bracket to the rear ofthe wheel pant where you see a small side opening. This will be to attatch the support wiresfrom the wing and fuse to the wheel minimizing lateral movement. All in all its getting there...I have an idea thatimprovesmounting therear bracket to the landing gear wire,which I will fabricate and show you tomorrow evening.

Such professionalism.  I wouldn't expect anything less VJ.

Just think, now everything you build has to be top notch!