Been working on building a T-craft the last month and a half, kind of a stress releaver for me. About ready to cover now, just need a few items to complete. I have a OS 25 fp in it, wanted to put a 26 four stroke in it, but read too many saying it was a bit underpowered for this plane.
Was thinking about buying a cowl from Fiberglass Specialties, but I kind of want to keep all costs down and not spend more money if I don't have to. I gave a try at putting the three piece cowl together, and it turned out good. Felt guilty to cut it up in order to get the muffler on.

The side windows are butyrate sheet, does this mean I can glue it like regular plastic? I have Pacer formula 560 canopy glue for the windsheild, will this work fine? I've used it for a number of windsheilds, seems like the level in the bottle never goes down.

Here's the back side.

johnboyrc,


Looks good. Have you decided on what the covering will be and what it will look like?

Test fly it with the cowl you built, it looks good. You really should be able to hide the muffler inside what would have been the vent, or oil cooler or, well, I don't know what it was, but I stashed a OS .32 into mine without the muffler showing. I then promptly crashed it on maiden by yanking it into the air too soon (first kit, flew only a mini super sportster before, so I just ruined a plane with inexperience). Give your run more than 5 feet, and don't use an bumpy cow pasture for a runway, heh.

Great looking plane, throw some pics up when you get her covered.

eniac

HAY NICE T CRAFT Building one as we speek this is my second one used a 30 saito and what thay said is true 30 4 stroke does not have alot of power took a long runway .I will try to throw some picts But im not shur how to do it .You would be interested .I cut some doors in and made some seats and a cargo bay doors .Its going to be a float plane combo bush plane .
could be interesting iv never flown off of water .I will follow your thread and try te gat some picts up. I still have a lot to do on mine doors kinda stalld the rest if the build . I have the fuse stab el wings framed and all light sanded .Talk to you later.........

Hi John: Not sure my e-mail was sent; so have added this thread. You have done a swell job of building the T craft. One of my building/covering books mentioned using CLEAR monocoat/ultracoat for cabin side windows instead of butyrate pieces. The clear covering will take a lot of punishment from hanger rash, and there will be no problems from running the hot iron around the butyrate when applying the final color covering.

Let us know how the work progresses.

Rich S.

I got your message Rich. That's an idea I had not thought of, but I think I want to keep the solid plastic windows. I built an Old Timer 40 with the side windows, and it turned out really nice. Just need to get the right amount of glue on them so it doesn't look like a mess.

There was no way the stock muffler would fit in the cowl. I had to cut the cowl to get it to slide back to the firewall. The front of the muffler is over an inch out from the cowl at the farthest point.

I figure on covering with Monokote, with a red and white scheme similar to advertising picture scheme. Likely use some checkerboard trim tape to dress it up a little.

Don't know when I'll get done with it, have a few higher priority items to take care of next week. Closing on a house on Wed., have to update the electrical right away (get rid of buse fuses to satisfy insurance), shampoo carpets before moving in, and begin moving in. I have a few months before things get busy with work on the farm, I hope I can have it at least covered sometime in the next month.

Built one a couple of years ago with a Saito 30 up front; it was my first kit and first tail dragger. I think she flies real good with the Saito 30, at first I thought it was a little to fast for me, but then I warmed up to it. Right now this my favorite airplane. Good luck with it!
BTW: I'm thinking about building another one, just see how my skills have come along after four other kits!

I have one of these too and I love it. I put a Magnum 30 four stroke in it. It's not a lot of power, but it's definitely a good combination for the plane.

I used the Pacer canopy glue for all the windows and it's fine. I glued the sheets for the side windows on the inside, and it's held up well. If I had thought of clear Monokote, I probably would have done that; sounds like a great idea.

I built one-my kit suffered from some very hard balsa which did not help keeping the weight down. It flies well with a Saito .30. I have put the GP .20 sized floats on it and the .30 was a little under powered, but I replaced it with a Saito .40 and it handles the floats just fine. Overall a good build and nice flyer. I have another one and am going to modify the kit for the full length wings for float flying.

This is what it looked like before I added floats.

I was wondering if anyone had put it on floats. Lengthwise being a short plane, I was curious how it would handle water.

You may want to consider puting a SMALL vertical stab on the bottom of the tail of the plane if you are using floats.

The Great planes .20 size float kit that I used came with the fin. I use it and directional control is not an issue. Have not tried flying it without it.

My friend has a lower vert. stab. on his Decath float plane. Looks simple enough to add if needed.

Well, closed on the house, started cleaning and painting, moving a few things in, and a little electrical work. Seems like it takes forever to get something done, and I'm almost always needing something more for supplies to fix or touch up this or that. At least I made an order with Tower Hobbies last night, and got the few last items I need for the T-craft. It's will be a busy weekend, but hopefully I can treat myself to some covering of the tail pieces next week.

Here is mine. Coverd to match the H9 version.
Edit: Powered by a .40 LA and flies great. 20 minute flights with the standard tank. Flies at 1/4 throttle.

Is that what the OS 25FP looks like inside the GP T-Craft? I bought this kit (still unbuilt) and have that engine. I expected the engine cylinder head to be hidden entirely within the cowl and the muffler to stick out only a little. I'm pretty surprised that it looks like THAT! (no offense, dude )

The front half of the head does stick out, the back half I kept enough clearence. It could have been cut tighter, but I've had cowled engines that needed to breathe a little more than what I thought they needed. I don't know if putting the engine at a differnt angle with a different muffler would make it better, but I'm not looking to spend money to find out. I'm just using what I have laying around to complete it. If I could throw money in the air, I'd put a four stroke and some lighter servos in it, heck -it would even be fun as an electric I bet.

When it is airborne you don't notice those little things.

Please let us know how it flies with the OS 25FP!