nchrome,

Sent you another PM.

Patriot

Hi Guy's,

After reading this site the last few day's : I ordered the plan's from Sig to scratch build a Smith! YEAH I am so excited. I've been at this hobby 1 year and this would be my 4th plane. My 2nd plane died a slow (spiralling) death after 6mo flying ( 4star 40), My current plane is a Big Stick 60 (great plane) ?? Do you think it would be a good idea to tame the smith down a bit by expanding the wing span a little ( 4 to 6 inches ) OR build as is? 2nd ? I currently have a OS LA46 for this plane or would a Saito 56 be a better choice? [8D]

Thanks!!

I just bought my kit!!! thanks for teh 'inspiration guys!!

Now, waiting for it to arrive (mail order) and am still wondering what to tell the wife!!!

"It's a Christmas gift to myself!!" yeah, that should work!

dr_wogz, just tell her I bought it for you.

Haha will do...

I guess, as long as I spend more than the $100 i spent on myself on her, it'll be OK.

Now, she did want two new Play Station II games....

Wildman3 build according to the plans. If you want to tame it down use the throttle and the low throws of your radio. Expanding the wings would only make it hard to land cause I have a Sig ST Ryan and I converted it to a bype and I should of reduesed the upper and lower wing span. Cause for a plane like this you shouldn't be able to catch thermols but guess what I can with it. [8D] Took me about 15 mins to land this baby without damaging it just wouldn't stop flying. And I didn't want to put it in the tall grass and maybe damage something.That is one of my winter projects to reduse the wing span of her. Cause she realy looks good as a bype.[&:]

This is a bit off the subject of the Sig SMP, but I can't help but pipe in. Back in the early 80's a friend of mine and I designed and drew up a set of plans for a 1/4 scale SMP. I have now taken those plans and doubled them and now have a 1/2 scale version under construction. A local fab shop bent up a set of landing gear for me and I also have a cowling plug under construction to make a fiberglass cowl. I ran across a deal on a new 3W-150. Probably way too much power, but what the heck, it will fit inside the cowling. Hopefully will have it complete and ready for competition next year.

I powered my miniplane with a magnum 46.

An old freeflight trick to stop the ballooning is to set the stab at 1 degree positive to the datum line. This will give automatic increased down as speed increases. It also helps with inverted flight.

Okay, I'll quite being a chicken and make it the acrobat it is : ? do you think the saito 56 is a good choice?

MR.Scale...any chance of getting a copy of your 1/2 scale plans?????????

It is for general flying. It won't pull it unlimited veticle, and it probably won't hold a hover, but at 5,280 ft in Denver, mine came pretty darn close. It had all the muscle you need in reserve. It is a strong combination, and I didn't need to add lead anywhere to balance it out. Plenty of power for any manuver that doesn't maintain a hover.
I would suggest that if you are looking for the verticle performance to use the Saito .72. It is lighter and stronger than it's brother, the .65, and the mounting specs I believe are Identicle to the .56. You'll probably have to add lead to the tail to balance it out, however. But there is PLENTY of wing area for the weight, and I believe the ariframe is strong enough for it.
As aerobatic as it is, keep in mind it is not the ultimate, and will not throw the manuvers as easily. (But it is still fun as snot!![8D])

Flythe9 is right with regard to positive incidence in the stab. As you can see in the picture, my plans call for +1 degree.

SBD3, let me think about it. It is a big task for me to make these plans. Where is Flatrock in relation to Seymour?

Mr. Scale I am about 12-15 miles north of columbus......

I loved my Miniplane, it seems to be one of the "most loved" kits around! Mine was powered by a Magnum .52 2stroke and at 6300 feet had plenty of vertical power for traditional aerobatics. Very gentle stall and good low-speed handling. Flew "like a bigger plane", real solid and steady feeling. A good windy-day model. Lightning snaps, beautiful spins and inverted performance, knife-edge required elevator and aileron correction. Weight came in at 5 1/2 lb. I loved flying from the snow with the Smith on skis, and am sure I'll have another some time. (On my 2nd Hog-Bipe now.)
The Sig model is one of their "craftsman's kits" meaning the structure follows the full-scale as much as is reasonable, so it's an involved build with stick-built fuselage sides. It would be quite an eye-opener to somebody who's cut his teeth on liteply tab-in-slot construction. The result is a light, strong, realistic model the builder will be proud of.
Mine had servos in the lower wings at the ailerons, hidden on hatch plates. The engine and muffler were fully enclosed, looked really great. No trouble with the ABS cowl. SIG ABS parts can be covered with Ultracote. Monokote was brutally difficult to use for the boxtop trim scheme, Ultracote next time. I built the interplane struts using K&S airfoiled aluminum tubing. Epoxy joints. The ends were stuffed with wood, then the stock alignment pin and screw plate arrangement glued in. They turned out real nice, light and good-looking.
Higley's Biplanes book features the Sig Miniplane and is well worth studying for alternative building techniques. Mine went together fine using the kit instructions. I thought the rear fuselage box felt quite flexible and like it would easily break glue joints. Diagonal 1/8 square bracing was added and completely stiffened the fuse with negligible weight gain.
FWIW, my opinions:
This is a pretty small, hot airplane and gets small quickly. For this reason, I did the sunburst trim scheme on the tops but left the bottom solid red. The contrast really helped keep the pilot "out in front of the airplane" and helped me feel confident enough to really wring it out.
The Smith is a scale model of an aerobatic home-built aircraft with ailerons on the lower wing only. Although the airfoil allows decent inverted performance, it's not a symmetrical wing. The prototype was not powered for unlimited vertical or gigantic manuevers. As small as the Sig kit is, weight control is more important to good flight properties than stuffing in a bigger engine. A .46 2stroke will fit within the cowl, but a .52 4stroke would be awful nice. I don't see the point in overpowering this scale model, the Hog-Bipe is far more aerobatic with 4 ailerons and symmetric airfoil, and is LOTS easier to build. The Smith got a lot of admiring attention, flew so nice, and I miss it. The next one will get blown up to around 60-inch wingspan for a 1.20 4stroke, one of these winters...

Swooper - What a neat backdrop. One of the nicest I've seen. [8D]

Smith Mini with RCV60 SP.

Smith mini with RCV60 SP no cowl.

I had a Smith Mini many years ago with a 45 in it... I think the 72 4 stroke would be a great choice... Also, for the "N" struts, consider making them out of ply wood vise making them with the wire... I just used some brass pieces bent at 90 degrees for the wing connection...

I loved the way it flew... If you keep it light weight it will fly like a trainer and yet do all kinds of acro stuff too... I would love to have another one, but the building on this kit is very time consuming...

quote "I would love to have another one, but the building on this kit is very time consuming... "

You say that like it's something bad!

I heard a rumor that Sig has discontinued the Mini. Any one heard about this?

Barmowl I don't think its the smith but I do know that they did discontue the ST-Ryan.[] Which I think is a great kit (except for the hinges) do need to up date them. I think that if they updated the Ryan and maybe lazer cut some of the parts it could be an excellent kit. My $0.02 worth

Has anyone here installed upper wing ailerons on the Miniplane? If so, how did it work out?

If Sig discontinued this kit, they did so with plenty in stock. You can still order them from sig directly as I did about a month ago.

It would be nice if sig "updated" this kit, and re-release it. I still think it would sell.

In the 80's when giant scale was still in it's infancy there was a huge 1/2 version of the SMP made by a fellow named Robert Grimm, a fine gentleman who just passed away a few months ago. To the point he even made his own twin cylinder motor for it and flew it a few times. His plane had al least a 9/10 foot wingspan and the fuse was big enough to have a friend of mine take a picture of his grandchild in it. Thanks for bringing back that memory.

I'm about to start building a Smith Miniplane. This thread mentions using Harry Higley's bipe book to modify the interplane struts. Harry's book has been discontinued and I can't find one. Could someone please describe this mod and any other worth while changes to this plane? Or better yet, is anyone willing to part with their bipe book for a reasonable price?

Thanks
Andy