I am looking for some opinions and information on the Ryan STA kit by SIG. I am currently working on one that I purchased from a local swap shop. I have read some rather disturbing news about its design. A few posts that indicate the plane is not a good flyer and will probably crash! That is the reason SIG no longer offers the kit. I am wondering if I should even complete the project as I don't want a static model to look at I want to fly what I am building. There was also some mention of the real need to install all the flying wires that are indicated on the plan. I originally was not going to install them but now I'm not sure if that is a good idea. Anyone with experience with this kit please give me some advice.

sniggemann I don't know about these other mocelers but I have one and I've had it for about three years now and still flys just the way I want it to. Of course I don't have all the flying wires on it like I should but I do have the ones on the top of the wings and they are just fine for me. I have a super tiger 6l in it and she flys just fine. I just don't know whats the matter with some of these people that just can't fly a good plane unless it is an ARF. They just don't know how to build any more.

nchrome,

Thank you for your reply. I was really beginning to sweat the idea of this SIG Ryan being a big mistake. You said that you do use the flying wires on top of the wing..do you think they are really necessary? I would prefer to not use any wires at all if possible. Also, did you do any modifications to the landing gear or did you build it with the gear that came with the kit? Also, did you mount the engine inverted or at a 90° angle? Are there any strange fling/landing characteristics that you could share?

Thanks,
Scott

I bought the kit partially built and the one thing that bothers me is that there is no brace in the center of the wing.

sniggemann just glass the center of the wings and as far as the landing gear put a second tourque rod type brace behind the already tourque rod type landing gear. This will help the gear out quite a bit also the three wing ribs that hold the the landing gear blocks take and laminate with liteply to also help reenforce the gear. Also cut out notches for the second tourque rod blocks. You don't have to use the flying wires but it does help the looks of the plane if you make the two braces that go from the fuse to the wings. I mounted the engine inverted and used a pitts style muffler with extencions out the cowl. The plane does have a little problem with sencitivity in the elevator but if you use high throw or low throw this will help. She is a little nose heavy on the ground but just feed in the elevator until she gets rolling and she will take off just fine. I also made the tail wheel free willing this help a little as far as ground handling. As my nick name says she is done up in Chrome monocote. with checkerboard on the bottom of the wings. I also mounted a glow battery inside the fuse for the engine less apt to have engine failure at idle.

nchrome,

Thank you for the advice. What you advize to do makes pretty good sense to me. I do plan on adding the wing struts you had mentioned but there does not seem to be any instructions on how to do it. Do they just get screwed into the fuse and the other end rest on the wing or is it some how attached to the wing too? I really appreciate your help.

siggemann on the wing struts I just put a wire in one end and made a plate on the wing and the other end is screwed to the fuse. Installing the strut after the wings are mounted. On the insterment panel I copied what is in the plans except on each side of the panel I installed a toggel switch one for the reciever and the other for the nicad. Also is one of those LED battery level lights on the insterment panel. This works out quite well for me and my ST Ryan. Also donot use the plastic that they supply for the hinges instead use a set of Robart pin hindges. They will last a long time plus they are easier to install. I'm now in the prossess of converting to the Robart hindges. Also add the appropriate amount of wood for the hindges to be properly installed. I think you will like the way the plane handles affter you get off the ground.

nchrome,

I have just started to add the plywood rib reinforcements to help the landing gear. Seems to be going good so far. I bought the glass and resin to do the wing center after I get the rib/gear bracing done. I've already installed the plastic hinges as described in the plan. Are they not going to last too long??

Nchrome,

Sorry I didn't include this question above.......did you use the flaps for the plane? If so are you using a flap to elevator offset on your radio when the flaps are deployed? If so how much of an offset did you use? Also, what kind of a glow driver did you install? I am not too familiar with them but I will probably need to get one as well.

Sniggemann Please go back and take the plastic hindges out otherwise you will wish you did after the second or third flight. After quite a few flights they will develope quite a bit of slop and believe me you wont like it at all. No I did not put flaps on mine with how she handles I don't think you will need them but thats up to you. I also forgot to tell you I also aquired a second Ryan this one I built for a friend and now he's too old to fly it properly so I bought it with a fox 74. I still have to do a little mod to it for my taste. But it still helps out my plane harram is growing. For my list there is the 2 Ryans 1 B-25 (Wing MFG),A-26-B,Miss Vintage,P-47, Corsair, Jap Zero, 2 P-40s, 2 B-17s,Stagger Bee Bipe, Tower Voyager converted to a twinn,P-38,P-51, J 3 Cub,PDQ, and a Sophwith PUP. I guess thats my list for now but I have a few other bird on my want list but these bird will be scratch built.

nchrome,

Well I've already got the center torn back up to fix the gear so I might as well go back and redo the hinges. It seems I'm getting a very good lesson in building and rebuilding. I know what you mean about the hinges, they seem too flimsy to be effective for very long. I have not used robart hinges before but I think I've seen them before. They are the kind that are hinged with a little cotter pin and have ridged points to anchor into the balsa? I did not glue the hinges for the elevator or rudder yet so at least those should be easy to replace. You are doing me a great favor by giving me all this advice, I really appreciate it. Doing these modifications is really giving me some valuable experience in building and I love it. How did you attach the aileron control arm/clevis to the aileron? I used the plastic supplied, do you think I should use something else? Wow you have a pretty long list of birds! I've only got my trainer P-40 type in the air thus far. As you know I'm working on the Ryan and I have bought a nearly completed Texan AT-6 - 83 inch wing span plane with 620 Robart retracts on it. I bought it from a guy at work who started building it several years ago but never completed it. I also got his radio and pack in the deal. I may sell the plane to fund a CAP 232 but I don't know yet. I've still got to get the Ryan done before I can think about starting anything else.

Siggemann mite I suggest that you think about attending the Labor Day flyinn Down at Taylor Mo. this year I plan on being there again this year. It is only about a couple of miles across from Quincy Il. I garentee you a great time plus you can meet me and my wife and some of the other Spoon River flyers at this event. I'm also planning on attending the Inernet fly inn this year for the first time. Plan on taking my B-25 A-26-B HP200 PDQ and My newest one My VoyagerII (actually a Hobico Voyager but now with twin 26 four strokers)and my Miss Vintage. Also as far aas the control Horn I used standard control horns instead of what is in the kit. Made servo hatch covers on the bottom of the wings.

Hi all,

I have been following this with great interest. I have 2 Sig Ryan kits to put together in the future. Good information.

CWB

My Sig STA is 13 years old and flies just fine. nchrome has pretty much given you the info I would have passed along and it HAS been 13 years since I built it. But if I were to say one thing about the kit it is: DON'T USE THE HINGEING SUPPLIED IN THE KIT!!! LOL, they will wear out and are brittle. I changed over to the Robar hinges which was a pain to do afterwards. I put flaps on mine and they really do work pretty well. The gear needs beefing which has been discussed and the wires are optional. I put the wires on and ran into a couple of problems. First, if you are going to put wires on, top and bottom, be sure to break the continuity between top and bottom, other wise you have created a loop antenna. Loops are very directional and will screw up your radio signal (voice of experience lol). Second, be very carefull in tensioning the wires as there are a lot of them and you can quite easily warp the wing.

The plane is easy to fly, I use Hi/lo on the elevators. I have found you nedd to go to Hi for take of and landing. The plane needs quite a bit of input at low speeds to get it to flare properly. As with any scale plane, don't get low and slow, keep a good angle on final to flare. This plane will snap at low speeds.

This model was designed about 30 years ago. It's a very good kit, but common sense can be used in updating stuff.

Here is my plane.

Bish

Bish,

Great looking plane!!! I hope mine comes out as nice. As you can see from my posts, this is my first big project. I had build smaller control line stuff when I was a kid as well as some rubber band flyers. Nothing on this scale though so the help I am receiving is truly appreciated. I am in the process of making the modifications as directed by nchrome. It is good to hear that the wires are not needed as I did not want to mess with them at the flying field. A question I have about the flaps is did you get the full 35% deflection? Also do you use a flap/elevator offset when the flaps are deployed? If so how much of an offset do you use or should I say what would be a good starting point in setting that up? Did you use plastic or cloth for covering?

Bish:

Airplane is very nice, but I would never put a hook in that beautiful ceiling!

Bill.

Sniggemann,

Actually i get a bit more than 35deg on the flaps and no I don't have the elevators coupled in. There is absolutely no change in pitch when I drop the flaps so I wouldn't worry about that.

I covered the plane with SIG Koverall, I think. Anyway, it's fabric, sealed with 6 coats of thinned nitrate dope. K&B paints were still around when I built that plane so I used their primer, which was fantastic and their epoxy paint. Sure wish that stuff was still around 'cuz there is nothing like it now. Now please, tell me you are not going to cover that pretty airplane with "Saran Wrap", that would be criminal.

I have a OS61SF in it with a 13/8 prop and I run about half power most of the time. The ship weighs 10lbs. Probably should weigh about 8 pounds, but one of the draw backs of epoxy paint is there are no evaporants so you get to keep the whole thing on the plane.

Feel free to ask more questions if you need to.

William Robinson,

One of the advantages of being single I guess. It is my living room ceiling and during the winter when I hang all the planes it's really cool and very museumish!!


Bish

Bish:

I would have thought you'd want to keep your house warm during the winter.

Haw.

Bill.

PS: Single or not, it's still a shame to mark up that ceiling. wr.

Sniggeman,
A lot of times Guys can't fly certain scale airplanes because they try to fly them like Sport planes. THe Ryan is an airplane which needs to be handled like a real airplane on TO and landing. IE let the tail come up and run out on the mains till you have sufficient speed to take off. don't try to horse the airplane around.
anyway They fly great and I'd love to build one but i have no time LOL well no place to build LOL
Take care
Mike

Mike:

Off the subject, but I used to race with a fellow named Damiani, as I recall his first name was Brian. He and Don Yenko were always running "B" Production in Corvettes. Any relation? Yenko had a Chevrolet dealership in Canonsburg.

Bill.

PS: Yenko also had an unbelievably evil grin when you saw him in your mirror, coming up behind your car. Haw. wr.

Hey there Will
Sorry no relation but sounds like a blast!!!
I'm offering up my Hotrod 66 Mustang project so I can buy a full size airplane. I'm hoping to get a Starduster Too
anyone interested just 5500.00 LOL all new parts including a freshly built 289 included! LOL

Bish,

I had been leaning towards the fabric covering from the beginning. As you know the kit recommends silk but I think the Koverall would probably be better due to it's shrink-ability. The only experience I have had with covering was with tissue and dope so the fabric and dope would be more comfortable for me. I want to give the plastic a try but probably not this time. Thanks for the info on the flaps. I have an OS 60FP to go into the plane, as such I'm sure it will probably take awhile to got off the ground but that should be OK for me as my trainer seems to take forever. If you have any other pictures of the Ryan I'd love to see them.

I've also bought a Sig Ryan kit. I did not start to built it allready, but hopefully I'll start it in a near future. But I have a question. Is there besides the plans also a booklet with building instructions included with the kit? Because it was not included in my kit. If there is one, where can I find it?

johndoe,

Yes there is a booklet with the kit. You may want to contact SIG to see if they can send you one. Let me know if you have any success as I can probably scan mine and e-mail it to you.

Thanks for the quick reply Sniggemann. I'll try to contact Sig for the booklet. I'll let you know.