I'm thinking of building one of these. Does anyone have any tips or tricks that would help?

One of my favorite planes. There are very few things that you need to change.
If you build it as a tail dragger (recommended) discard the tail wheel wire
supplied and use a Sullivan. The supplied wire WILL break.

You can use dual aileron servos mounted out in the wing. I did
this with mine but the stock aileron arrangement works well.

Other than that build it stock. Its a terrific flyer.
I used a TT46 Pro on mine. All the power it needs.

Mike Hammer

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm planning on a tail dragger with a Saito 45 for power.

Ditto on the tail wheel wire. Not fun to replace after the fact.

Also, reinforce the vertical stab with tri-stock.

Hello; I had a /Saito 45 on my first Mid star, it was great. It taught me more about flying then any other plane since. I built 3 altogether, all taildraggers. I put a bigger sullivan tailwheel on for our rough grass field, and braced the vertical stab with tri-stock. The third one I built, I added a little air balance to the top of teh rudder, just a half inch. That one got an Enya 46 FS. I tried zero dihedral, but did n't like it and went back to what the plans called for. After the first one I cap stripped the ribs forward of the spar. I first did this to make covering more attractive, but it made a better wing so aI did it to the third one too.

The first one was covered like n Extra with dark blue and a red strie going front to back, the second was like the box, the third was all red.

I had one and it was a blast to fly. I had built it as a tail dragger with dual aileron servos and all control surfaces enlarged, no dihedral, and spruce wingspars. I flew this plane hard and it held up to everthing I threw at it except a high speed dive. Wing flutter caused the crash. The pilot (me) caused the wing flutter. I would build another without a doubt. I think it is a better plane than the 4*40 for sure.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I wanted a kit to improve my basic building skills. This will be my second build. I'm just finishing a Tiger 60. The Mid Star sounds like it will be fun, can't wait to get started...

I really enjoyed my Mid Star as well. I sheeted the leading edge forward of the spar
Great craft

do you have any pictures of your Mid Star 40?

Which airplane do you like better, mid star or tiger?
thx

There was once a pilot years ago that I know, flew the midstar 40 exclusively ... he flew it hard an often.. this was back in the days when we were still flying 1D ... He had a custom move, he never named it, and it has yet to be described scientifically..I am not saying we didn't understand what was happening, but hey...none of us knew Latin

One day this unique young man was flying his routine..and its not his overall routine that was unique so much as he always wore shorts, even in the winter... But I degress .... He suddenly threw his plane into the move that made him famous at 2 hobby shops and one club field, when A WING SHEARED OFF ... having never seen Bill Hempel land an overpowered 6000 square inch, 18 oz , $15,000 airplane he did what anyone else would do...watched it cross the horizon while proving that gravity with an apple is much more forgiving than an airplane, because it would have killed Newton outright the way it hit.


We knew he had given up when he idled it back before impact.

Moral of the story ? I'd substitue spruce for your wing spars if it calls for balsa...

I have decided to try a Midstar after my US60 build as a plane my son might enjoy flying... plus, it looks like a relaxing build after the US60 sand-fest.

Question for all you who have completed sheeting the leading edge; I will do that also but do you just taper into the spar or do you cap-strip to the TE and taper prior to the aileron?

I hear it is a fun toss around plane and I have a left over OS70 looking for a home.