I'm getting ready to put this on the building board. I'd like it to fly more like an Ultimate 10-300. Here's my proposed modifications:
*Square wing tips.
*Both wings 51"
*No dihedral on bottom wing.
*Big rudder and F3A style tail.
*Stan's FG cowling

Not sure what to do with the cowling.

Any thoughts?

Why wouldn't you just build an Ultimate?

I modified my Hog (basically tail feathers and internals like pull pull, some re-enforcements etc) but didn't try to make it fly like a different plane.

Just curious why you'd want that level of bashing vs building a different plane?

Bob aka Nuker

ilikeplanes,

After building and flying my stock Hog Bipe, I decided I needed another one. I modified mine to be more like an Ultimate. The modifications I did were:

1.) Built the wings stock, except I left off the rounded wingtips. This improved roll rate by quite a bit, but I did lose a little bit of slow flying capability on landing. My stock one lands slower.

2.) I added extentions to the formers behind the cockpit, sheeted it and added a canopy.

3.) I reshaped the stabs, and used the stock wood they provided for the elevators and rudder (but I didn't cut any of this material away or reshape these).

4.) I shortened up the nose some, about an inch and a half, to shift the CG back some while using a magnum 1.08 2-stroke.

5.) Added a hatch on the top of the nose to access the fuel tank.

6.) Double beveled the trailing edges of the wing and stabs and the leading edges of the control surfaces to get a lot of throw.

7.) I was able to cut a few lightening holes in a few spaces to save an ounce here and there.

These changes really made the Hog bipe into a crazy 3D machine. This thing will make a great harrier pass, elveators awesome, popups, torque rolls, and hovers. I can shift the CG back farther and get a great flat spin out of it.

The only things I will change on my next Ultimate Hog Bipe are the following:

1.) I will use a beefier aftermarket tailwheel bracket. The stock wire gear gave up after a season of doing elevator/harrier landings.

2.) I'll use beefier pinned hinges instead of the CA hinges provided. The CA hinges in my stock Hog Bipe have held up fine, but the ones in the Ultimate Hog have started to fail. I think this is because of all the extra throw and working them harder with high speed pop ups and stuff.

3.) I'll probably try a Saito 1.00 4-stroke. This kinda defeats the cheapness of my current combo, but I like 4-strokes better for some reason. Plus I want to have enough power for a climbing flat spin.

As for why bother bashing the hog bipe kit verses just building an Ultimate kit? Well, for me it was the ease of building the Hog and the fact that for the price of the kit, you get a much larger airplane than the Great Planes Ultimate with a lower wing loading and it is a lot cheaper than the Goldburg or other 1.20 sized ultimates.

Good Luck!
-Scott-

VoughtF4U, I'm down with your mods. Did the the turtle deck/canopy mod work out? Did it look good?

I will buy a CG Ultimate as soon as they become available (this fall hopefully). Meanwhile, I just want to start a project. Anyway, kit bashing is fun and rewarding.

ilikeplanes,

The turtle deck and canopy addition were easy. I basically drew a straight line on the plans from the top of the fuselage at the rear, to a point where I though the rear edge of the canopy should go. From there, I extended the lines of the formers on the side view up to meet this line, with the one at the cockpit angled back some. I measured how tall these additions were and cut 3/32" balsa wood sheeting to this measurement, the thickness of each former. I rounded the top of these former extentions, glued them in place on each former and then sheeted it with 1/16" balsa sheeting. Once they were glued in place, I cut three notches in them for the three 3/16" square balsa stringers and glued them in place. Very quick and easy, maybe took an extra ten minutes of build time. Couldn't have added hardly any weight.

The canopy was off a .40 sized great planes Extra 300, trimmed down to fit. Looked great and I think it improved my knife edge performance some. My stock Hog will knife edge, but with the added side area and extra rudder throw I could knife edge loop and hold altitude in a knife edge pass at a much slower speed.

I did have a problem with my pilot trying to eject during a blender and he took the canopy with him. I guess he didn't have faith that I would pull out in time. I found the pilot but not the canopy. He was back flying the next weekend with a two liter soda bottle canopy over him the next weekend. After another two weeks of low pull outs he decide to bail out again, but after he ejected the canopy he decided to stick with the plane. He has been flying ever since without the canopy.

Pretty straight forward on the turtle deck. I'll do that too.

More questions:
*I'm mounting a Saito 72 (probably not enough, but I have it). Should I also move the firewall back one inch?
*I don't like the side mounted aileron servos. I think I'll mount mine upright so I can get to the horn better. Any thoughts here?
*Where's the pics?

I wouldn't worry about moving the firewall back any. My stock one with the firewall in the original place balanced out fine with the radio gear and battery in the location indicated on the plans. That was with a Magnum .91 4-stroke.

With the Ultimate Hog I knew I would have to move the firewall back some to shift the CG back a little and to make up for the extra weight of the 1.08 2-stroke.

Both the 1.08 and the .91 4-stroke had enough power to hover. Your Saito .72 will be plenty of motor, but you may need just a bit more power to pull out of a hover.

I used the stock aileron setup on both my hog bipes. They have worked out fine for me. I used standard servos in both. The wing is pretty thin so you may have a lot of your servo sticking out the bottom of the wing if you mount it upright.

I'll look around on my computer at home and see if I can't come up with some pictures of my mods. I knew i took some at one time but don't know if I can actually find them anytime soon.