RC Wings GREAT JOB boy that looks great, you will love this little plane, I did mine also just like the box and also scratched built a 1/3 scale after my dad's full size smith,
Im in the works now of doing a 88"er, fuse is done and tail feathers.
again great job and enjoy your maiden, watch the rudder on the ground it works very well.

Thanks 2.4ghs! I put in lots of expo on the rudder so hope that make it a little smoother, but noted! Best of luck with the 88"er!

expo is good i am running what they called for and 60% and i does help on the ground, quick little thing. Landings are a piece of cake it almost does it by itself. It has a great glide kinda like a brick but very controlable.

Marko,

ALL RIGHT !!! Your "Smith" turned out great...

Sorry I missed your post. I haven't had much, if any, time on RCU for a couple of weeks now. Anyway, it sure looks good - and good luck with the maiden.

Thanks Rick. Hoping for maiden on Sunday if time and weather cooperate.

Well, the Smith Mini Plane flies!!!!! One of the most uneventful maidens I have had...which is a good thing! Take off was perfect and no nasty ground handling, but I do have a substantial amount of expo on the rudder. Only needed a few clicks of down elevator. Did a few laps, and low flybys as well as a couple rolls. Need a little more rudder for a knife edge, so will add in. The Super Tigre .51 hauls it around with authority. Did not really "wring it out" as I rarely do on the first flight of any plane and so after five minutes into it I decided to land and it was text book perfect! Checked things over and when I went to refuel for the second flight, something gave and I ended up with a fuse full of fuel! Luckily the foam I used for the battery (under tank) absorbed most of it and fortunately I wrapped the battery in a sealed plastic bag, so no major apparent damage. Not really sure what the problem is at this point until I pull out the tank. Have run about four or five tanks through it so far without an issue. Good thing we caught it before flight number two! Other than the fuel issue, I could not be more thrilled! Thanks to the folks on this thread as you helped me with some of the mods needed to make it a decent well behaved little plane. Man does it look nice in the air!!!!

For any recommendations at this point, I would say to add 2.0 degrees of positive incidence on the stab. I intended to have this, but after the dust settled I ended up with only 1.5 degrees and decided to go with that. This yields a very slight down elevator position from the stab (almost unnoticeable) and speed does not seem to affect trim. 2.0 degrees may have been perfect.

Cheers,

Awesome!

Glad to hear the maiden went well, and especially glad that your fuel system bug presented itself on the ground and not in the air.

I just pulled the onboard glow out of my Smithy, which should really help performance. The unit weighed over 4oz! [X(] I am going to rebuild the fuel sytem in mine (in order to simplify), re-tune the engine, and am hoping that this will all make a difference in how it flies.

Anyway, congrats on getting her in the air!

Thanks RV7! Let us know how you make out after the mods! Mine flew so nice that I am itching to get it back in the air once I have a chance to look at and resolve the fuel system issue.

Marko,

Congratulations on the maiden. I hope the fuel leak turns out to be something simple.

Thanks Rick. Pulled out the tank late last night and it was split at the seam. Never used this brand of tank before, and likely never will again. Looked like a good design and reputable company and why I deviated from one of the two usual "good old reliable" brands on this particular project. Never seen that happen before. Just came home with a replacement so should be back in business soon.

Cheers,

What brand was the tank? Help us all avoid a costly mistake, please.

I hate knocking any particular brand on these threads, but due to the circumstances I guess it may be justified. It was a Great Planes 8 oz tank. Now that I recall, I used the same type tank in a large Sukhoi, only higher capacity and it has been good for three seasons now. I think that is why I went with it in the SMP as liked the design and ease of assembly. I don't believe I over tightened the stopper nut, but may be possible. Looking at it closely, it appears to me that the seam was poorly done and inside the collar seems defective. Wish I had noticed that when I installed it, but didn't really occur to me to put it under a microscope.

New Du-Bro 10 oz'er installed and ready for action. Figured she can carry a bit more weight for a few extra minutes of flying fun. Hopefully have her out for some more flights this week.

I always use DuBro tanks. Either way, sounds like everything will be OK

Du-Bro and Sullivan tanks have both been good to me. Never had an issue. I think I have one large Graupner tank which has been leak free as well for over 16 years in another bipe. Nice design only very expensive (fuel tank wise) if I recall, but not sure if they make them anymore.

Update:

I once again love my Miniplane! [&:]

I did three things to make it better.

-Removed the MPI onboard glow driver. Great unit, but ...heavy... and really not necessary for this aircraft.
-Swapped the Rx batt for a lighter one. Stuck with NiCd chemistry (I'm old-school [8D]).
-Removed the DuBro quick-disconnect fueler valve and converted to a three-line tank system with a dedicated fill/drain clunk. My Saito .62 is much happier now.

And so am I! It's like a new plane. Fast when you want, slow and easy when you need it to be, and a blast to fly. Wooot!


So, how about you'all out there? Any good Smithy flight reports? Let's hear 'em!

Hey Rv7,

Gad to hear your love for the SMP has been rekindled! I don't have allot of stick time on my SMP yet, but do have about 6 or 7 flights on it and I like it so far. Had it out tonight and although a little breezy it handled it fine. A newbie was at the field trying to do Cuban 8's with a large Hellcat, and after a number of attempts and coaching, he finally understood the concept, but still needed some work. Of course soon after I took off with the SMP, he asked that I SHOW him how it is done. Well, was a little embarrassed as difficult to do a well executed Cuban 8 when the plane wants to barrel roll, rather than do a nice axial roll, and the wind did not help!!! Finally got something that resembled the maneuver after a few tries while compensating. Did not expect to have a precision aerobatic plane with the little SMP so I was OK with it, but I knew the newb had doubts about my flying and coaching...... So, time to see if the wings will stay on, and demo what a Bipe is meant to do! Man does this little gem like to snap! Spins are just too much fun upright and inverted. Recovery is predictable and no nasty tendencies observed yet. Before I knew it, my timer was going off and had to make a perfect landing. All he could say was "WOW" and I think he forgot about the poor Cubans. Still making a few little tweaks on the controls here and there to get it to my liking. Definitely not an Ultimate or Sukhoi when it come to aerobatics, but for just tossing around, this one is high on the fun factor scale!!! Kinda what I expected before I built it, so am really happy with it so far plus it looks real nice on the low inverted flybys and knife edge passes!!!

Regards,

I agree- this little Smith was made for tossing around. Great snaps, also good hammerheads and loops.

I need to attach brace wires to my empennage; it seems as though my horizontal stab is slightly out of line with the wings, which makes the plane want to skew in a loop (or anytime I use a decent amount of elevator). Rather than remove and re-seat the entire empennage, I figure I can use bracing wires to tweak it straight.

My favorite thing about this little bipe is that I can keep it assembled at all times, and just throw it in the truck and go!

Many, MANY years ago (about 34!) the Sig Smith Miniplane was my second airplane. The first was a 3 channel Sig Kadet. So, I went from a trike gear 3 channel trainer to a 4 channel tail draggin' biplane! (I had a great instructor!) Anyway, that little bipe with a ST-45 was a great little flyer. This thread has got me the itch to build another, so I guess I will need to find a kit someone has laying around that they are not planning on building...


Jake

Jake,
The Smith Miniplane is still available from Sig. Here is the link.
http://www.sigmfg.com/cgi-bin/dpsmar...FV5.html?E+Sig
Go to aircraft-RC kits-scale models.

I'm considering buying a kit to keep in the box for when I am older; it'd be fun to try a "do-over" some day!

Thanks for the info. I know that the kits are available from Sig, however, being the cheap guy that I am...

Jake

One of my favorite kits. A bargin @ $125 from Sig.

Be careful about the Ebay auctions. I've seen people pay more on Ebay than they would direct from Sig. The kits are no better, just older!

I'd rather give my business to an american icon like Sig; its the only thing that keeps great companies like this alive

RV7 - FLYCFII - After all these years of chatting I still don't know a name to call you.

Anyway, You know, my "Smith" also had a tendency to try and roll out of the loops a little bit. Just enough to corkscrew them a bit. Outside loops were even worse than the inside loops. You may remember that I braced up the tail on mine as well. I never could get rid of that effect without using the rudder and/or ailerons. I noticed when I started using the 12 and 13 inch props it seamed to get worse. Maybe my imagination..I don't know..[]...I suspect it is an aerodynamic characteristic of this little plane. That is also one of the reasons I suggest to not overdo the control surface travels on this plane.