doh, forgot to add my email address

[email protected]

Thanks again.
Dwight

Can you post the pics of the bolt on wing method and bomb bay you used?

Thanks,
Ryan

How about a Kadet'Cub??????

http://www.********.net/forums/showt...2243#post12243

Sorry for my delay in returning to this post. Been a little busy with a project of my own.

As for the long distance fun fly: We take off in Ault Colorado and head straight east to Sterling on HWY 14.

We have a driver (sometimes 2), a pilot, and a co-pilot who takes the sticks when the pilot gets tired.

You need a pickup without a topper. Toss a luvseat or couch in the back and shove it back up against the tailgate; facing forward. Put on your riding or skiing goggles and bring lots of iced-tea and sunscreen.

We take off on the runway at Ault and then hop in the truck while you circle the field. Once the truck gets going, you just fly the plane along over the plowed fields and under the telephone wires. With the driver and his navigator up front and two pilots in the back, it's a real blast.

If you need to stop for more gas or to charge batteries, just land on the HWY. (2-lane blacktop HWY)

You'd be amazed at how fast a Kadet Senior actually flies. We prop the engine up and slow the throttle down to almost 1/2. The planes still do 60MPH, no problem.

It is such a blast. I look forward to it every year.

For the header tank installation, just mount the main tank under the wing and the 2oz or whatever size you want under the hood, behind the firewall. Run the pickup on the main tank into the pressure line on the header tank and the pickup on the header to the carb. Pressurize the main tank from the muffler, just like you would normally. With this setup, the main tank will drain first. Your CG will not change much if you mount the main tank under the wing. This way you don't have to re-trim as the tanks gets low.

When running the header tank, try to mount the main tank about 1/4"-1/2" higher than the header tank. This will give you a slight siphon advantage and will keep the engine from leaning out as the main tank gets low. If you encounter problems with leaning out as the main tank gets low, just fill it only about 1/4 full and then tune the engine that way. Fill the tank the rest of the way full and go fly it.

For the flaps, heres what I'd do:

Run a single servo in the middle of the wing for flaps and rig both flaps to a single pushrod or torquerod. Then put a servo in each wing half for ailerions.

Have fun with it.

RCPilet,

That sounds like a real blast. You guys definetly make the plane do some "traveling" rather than just circle the filed. I'll be you get some strange looks from other motorist when they figure out what you're doing. Have you kept a record of how many miles the plane has flown over all?

Ever had a county mountie, or state trooper stop you and ask what the heck you were doing

Thanks again guys for all the input. I'll be incorporating lots of your ideas in my "ultimate" Sig senior.

Capt Kaos,
Your Cadet/Cub looked great. Sorry to hear about it's incounter with "them". Now that you're away from Roswell, maybe you should build another one. It's chances will be much better in Central Mo, than New Mexico. About all you got to worry about there is some drunken "good ole boy" shootin it down with his 12 guage because he thought it was the "biggest durn goose he'd ever seen"

Take care,

Dwight Hayden

I've got one of these in the bones from a friend of mine. I want to make it a taildragger. Is there an aluminum gear anyone makes that is a good fit for the Senior? Maybe a glass gear? Just wondering.... anyone know.

The main thing to look for in a gear for the Sr. Kadet...try to get one at least an inch wider...... it will make it track much better....
check out a .60 size gear and get the widest possible...

Have any of you considered or tried to change the airfoil from flat bottom to a semi-symetrical shape? Roddy

After flying my Senior for a few years built fully stock I used the cat jumping on the rear tailplane as an excuse to rip mine apart and do a rebuild. Mods I did were:

1. Taildragger. I switched to a dural aluminum blank (believe it was a 60 sized) mounted just aft of the wing leading edge, using 1/4" ply to reinforce the bottom, tri-stock to reinforce the ply and some extra 1/4" balsa to fill in and reinforce the fuse sides for mounting the tri stock to. For the tail gear I went straight below the rudder to make the linkage as simple as possible.

2. Bolt on Wing. Again added 1/4" balsa to reinforce the fuse in the canopy area. Used a pretty basic setup with dowls holding the front into a builtup area on top of the windshield area, and wingbolts going into hardwood blocks in the rear. I also fully sheeted the wing center section area top and bottom, using ply in the back and filled in the area the wings bolt through with balsa. It worked very nicely and although the builtup area on top of the windshield area was a bit taller than the stock balsa it blended nicely.

3. Ailerons/Flaps. I just ripped the wing right behind the rear spar,adding 1/4" balsa behind the spars, and 5/16th balsa shaped appropriately for the leading edge of the control surfaces. Servos were in the center area, and activated the control surfaces with pushrods. I also cut the wing in half to remove half the dihedral and made new ply dihedral braces. One thing I didn't do that I should have was install access hatches for the bellcranks as sure enough I needed to make some mods after it was all finished up and ended up having to go through my covering.

4. Doped finish using Koverall. The Kadet certainly had no problem with the extra weight and it looked so much nicer than plastic film. Tougher too. I landed in the corn once (deadstick) and there was absolutely no damage to the covering anywhere.

I also switched the engine shortly after that time from a K&B 45 Sportster to a Saito 65. The mods didn't really change the Kadets flying too much. Everything worked and was strong enough and it still flew much the same (SLOW) , however it would roll better than with rudder only. Mixing in rudder with the turns really tended to make it look quite scale in flying. The flaps were neat, and would really make it baloon if you dropped them with full throttle which was fun to do if you were the ribbon plane at a funfly.

Here's the kicker though. I ended rebuilding a stock Seniorita after a friend got me a broken one from a garage sale and eventually sold the modified Senior. The stock Seniorita is powered by an OS40 FS Surpass and is the perfect plane for buddycording a newbie to, and for sunset flights. The modified Senior is 18 years old now, and still is still flying regularly with the fellow who bought it.

I made a twin Kadet w/ a 20% airfoil. It didn't have ballooning tendancies like the flt bottomed one. I can't say if it flew any better., but it was different.

My mods to the standard Kadet are the same as the others....
Ailerons and flapps, hinged at the TE spar. 1/2 dihedrial. Flaps not needed at all, but add to the fun factor. I can dive at the field and about 2 foot from the ground, and w/ full flap and partial elevator enter a loop. At the top give more elevator so it exits a bit higher than it entered, but go right into a landing.... Sure does give the illusion it's gonna crash It woudl easily do rolling circles at half throttle. Mine was a trike gear, and it was a blast to do one wheel touch and goes. I also added a fixed tailwheel as I found I was scrapign the wood on the tail as it is so easy to land scraping the tail.
Mine is/was powered by a K&B .65 swinging a 14x6 prop. Not too much speed ( which you don't want in a Kadet), but tons of torque. Also have a Bomb door ( which also makes a good speed brake), and an external release for stuff that won't fit into the bomb bay. Mine is over 10 years old, and doesn't have any flying wires, or extra bracing in the fuse. I actually retired it last year as the Monocote was always shattering, and now the fuse is rather fuel soaked. I'm all elctric now, so I'll probably build a new one this winter and electrify it. May go with the 20% airfoil on it Also sold the Twin Kadet as the motor pods are too close to run the larger props needed for electric power.

One thing for sure.... Nothign flies like a Kadet.

Looking for a set of plans for SIG Kadet Senior. I plan on enlarging the plans 20-30% to accomodate my 0.91 4-stroke. Anyone have a set? Has anyone enlarge the plans or found that the plane is not engineered to be simply increased in scale.

Hi there, I know its kind of late concerning the original question but I used to have a Kadet Senior, Intel the wing folded right at the end of the doubler in a 60º bank turn. I would highly recommend making the main spars out of high quality spruce or poplar INSTEAD of balsa. Use the same cross section. Taper the doubler at least at a 30º angle, the more of the taper the better, my plans showed it to be blunt and that’s why it folded. I know this because of the years spent getting my Bachelors in Aerospace Engineering.

The other helpful mod I would make is giving the horizontal and vertical stabilizers more of a mounting plate then just a small stick. Also adding shear webs to the end of the fuse will help. Another alternative is installing flying wires to the V and H stabs.

I plan on building another one this winter with these mods.

Makes a great camera / video plane
It’s a blast to fly.

Here is a pic of the old plane.

SGG

I'm wrapping my senior right now and plan on haven ready this weekend. it's my first plane to build and the only mod i put on it was ailorons, i'm also making it a taildragger, but haven't figured out how to mount the tailwheel. i wish i had seen this forum a couple of months ago before i started the project. i am mounting a OS .61 4-stoke on iti just learned how to fly on a stick 40 plus, which is a trainer but flys sloppy and fast. i just hope i don't crack the wings in half trying to do somethen crazy with it. when i get it in the air i'll let ya know how it goes!

REDRAIDER

If you have not got the wings covered yet, you might want to consider as a retro fit using a uni directional; Carbon, Kevlar, or S-glass spar cap on the main spars. The idea is to have the bending stress in the out most part of the spar cross section see the high strength reinforcing fibers rather then balsa.

Again for people just starting Kadet Senior construction I would highly consider using spruce, poplar exc for the main spar and taper the doublers.

I have painfully learned that balsa has no place for main spars or main longerons in this type of construction.

SGG B.S.A.E

I've had no problems with the balsa spars backed with the spruce doubler. The only mod I made to the wing was to add sheer webs out two extra wing bays both front and back spars and also replaced and added 5 ply wing doublers to both front and back top and bottom wing joints instead of the lite ply supplied in the kit. That with a nice two inch strip of fiberglass tape around the wing joint. Never had any problems of weakness in the wing. Even when the wind caught the tail and flipped my Kadet over on the wing, no problems. So I think the integrity of the wing design is just fine, with just a few additions. Also added sheet balsa where mounting the tail and rudder, and added diagonals to the top and bottom of the fuse. Makes for a very strong fuse. The Kadet Senior was my first trainer, and I still have it. I should charge it up and fly again one of these days. Nose wheel has been a drag with the stranded cable, but in general, its ok. If I were to do it again, I'd put in a solid rod straight back to a servo mounted low, keeping it as straight as possible. and I'd probably install at least a strong 46, possibly a 60 instead of the Thunder Tiger 42 I have in it now. Needed nose weight anyway. Otherwise its been a great plane to learn on.