Hi all,

My Sig Somethin' Extra should be here tomorrow. It is my first kit and I was wondering if anyone had experience with it. I will post pictures as I go along. Any info will be appreciated.

Cheers,

I am just building my first as well. It has taken me what seems like forever, but I have done other projects since I started it. Follow directions and you will be fine. I do recommend that when you start the wing sheeting, to be very careful. It is very thin and can punch through very easily. This applies to the sanding as well, not much there when you think of it. Otherwise, it is great fun to watch it go together. Oh....one thing else, make sure you have a good flat building board when doing the wings.

The easier question is "who hasn't got experience with a SE?" The SE is an easy building kit that will go together as fast as you can locate the parts and squirt thin CA... If you build it on a flat surface and follow the instructions to the letter you will end up with a light and Strong airframe that will fly beautifully.

Do a search on this topic and you will find a ton of information on this model...

If you do a search on RCU under Somethin Extra you will find more information than you dream of. Lots and lots of tips, mods, suggestions and flight tendencies.

Looks like a sweet plane. I have had one on the shelf for years. I actually pulled it out last night because someone wanted to see it. I still haven't taken the plastic shrink wrap off. I may just have to clean up the shop and pop this kit together. It looks pretty cool! Maybe build it and sell the magic, or just build it to complement the fleet.

I flew my Somethin Extra for about four years. It's a sweet flyer. My friend talked me out of it a few months back, so I sold it to him. Now I either want to build another, or buy it back from my friend. He let me fly it yesterday. I'd forgotten how sweet it is! Very forgiving at slow speeds, but when you pour on the coals she's a monster.

Good Luck!
Doug

Thanks for the replies everyone. The kit arrived today. I have read the instruction manual through and am going to pick up a few tools tomorrow and get started. It looks like I am going to need to get some type of table surface material so I can stick pins in it for the wing. Hopfully the LHS shop will have something I can use for that purpose. I think I have decided on an O.S. .46 FX for it. What size prop would you guys suggest for it? I think I'm going to go ahead and pick up all the parts to finish it while im out.

Thanks again.

Cheers,

I built the SE for my first kit and my first aerobatic plane(after my Avistar). It was a pretty easy build, but make sure you have no binding where the pushrods go from the servo arms through the first former in the fuse. My nyrod had too much of an angle from the servo arm to the former, and kinked on maiden which relieved me of my up elevator(I didn't need it anyway!). Needless to say it wasn't pretty. But, lesson learned... WATCH THOSE NYRODS!



Regards,
Philip

P.S. You could use drywall as a building surface...

P.S.S. I have exclusively used Thunder Tiger .46 Pros since the first time I bought one. They have outrageous power, and after broken in, I start mine with a chicken stick on just about first flip every time.

TexasOutlaw: For me, I put together a building board that I could use for other builds. It hangs in the wall in my garage. You may want to do a search on the site for this. However, here is how I built mine:

1. Went to Lowes and asked if they had a door that was damaged, but still flat in good shape. They had a bifold door that did not have the mounting hardware so they sold me both doors for $16.00. (The door is a hollow core wood surface door)

2. I then bought 2 ceiling tiles that when placed on the door long ways would cover the door surface. About $5 for both.

3. Bought some 3M spray adhesive.

Assembly was easy.
1. Take the door and lay it down flat after taking off the hardware if there is any. Actually I put mine across two saw horses.

2. Spray adhesive on both the door and the decorative side of the ceiling tiles. (You need the back so you have a flat surface) Make sure you put enough on to hold the 2 surfaces together.

3. CAREFULLY place the ceiling tiles on the door making sure you press it down on the entire surface and don't make sure to line up the edges. (I actually took a large piece of plywood and pressed pressed it down.

4. The ceiling tile will hang over the edge, but when the glue has had time to set, you can cut it off with a utility knife, or some other thin bladed saw. Brush the place where the cut is to dress it up a little.

5. Optional: Put cheap handle on the end of the board, and a hook in the wall so you can have it up and out of the way when not using it.

Remember: First you have to have the space, and this is not the only way to do it. As I said, you can search this site and get a lot of ways to make one. This one cost me: $16 for Door, $5.00 for the tile, $7.00 for the adhesive. $28.00 total and it works great. One thing to remember be sure to cover your plans so you can use them again. Wax paper works very well. The glue does not stick to it as much as it does with other plastic covering.

GOOD LUCK and happy building!

I use a hollow core door too. It's a 32" X 78" that I bought at Home Depot for $22. (They didn't have any with damage, but still a good price.)

I stick T-pins right into the door. Not easy, but it works. I think the ceiling tile idea is good, but it might be harder to keep it accurately flat.
Dennis-

I did quite a bit of checking when I finished to see if there was any uneven or bowed parts of the tile on the door. I could not find any....and pushing the T pins is sure much easier. Maybe it was the tile I chose, just don't know. It does build straight wings though.

I use 1/2" drywall on top of my flat building table. It comes in 4'X8' sheets, it's flat, is easy to cut to size, pins stick in it easily, you can cut wood or covering on it with razer blades, you can write or draw patterns on it, it's only about $5.00 per sheet and when one side gets ragged you can turn it over and use the other side.

Once again, thanks for the great infomation everyone. I think I will go with the door and some ceiling tiles or drywall, I don't know why I didn't think of something like that

Does anyone have suggestions as far as props?

O.S. .46FX

Thanks!

12x4 APC or 12.12x3.25 APC (my preference is the 12x4). With these props, you get some monster thrust, IMO the best thing for a .46 size aerobatic airplane.

Regards,
Philip

About that pushrod binding......the holes in the aft radio compartment former nees to be slots to let the rods move a little from side to side as the servo arms turn. It's easier to make this mod before you put it all together. Don't ask how I know this, lol

You may want to make a few mods while you build it. I would suggest adding some 1/16x3/8 balsa strips to the inside of the wing sheeting. Also you may want to increase the size of the rudder/elevator if you ever plan on trying to hover. Replace the stock tailwheel too. Lastly if you don't already have the engine, you should check out the Irvine .53. I've got a .61 on mine but I still wish I'd gone with the .53. I've heard nothing but good things about that combo.

I just bought the .46 FX yesterday. Of course I could always throw it in something else

The O.S. .46FX will be perfect for this plane. I had the same combo, and loved the plane.

I would suggest either an APC 11x5 or 11.5"x4

The 12" props are a little too long. The plane sits pretty low to the ground, and they would get snagged in the grass.

dave wrote ...
The 12" props are a little too long. The plane sits pretty low to the ground, and they would get snagged in the grass.
>>>>

As pointed out by others, there's a *lot* of SE-related info the Fun Flying forum <http://www.rcuniverse.com/forumdispl...?s=&forumid=21>. Just plug in the right words in the search box and a bunch of good threads will come back.

For longer legs on mine (mine is powered by a YS53 and I use 12" props), I just bolted on a set of AL ALY gear from a Great Planes Extra 300 ARF. The GP part nmbr is LXTA07 - a bit wider stance and almost an inch higher I think.

The 1/16" wing sheeting that came with my kit was way too soft for my taste so I went to my LHS and hand-picked some sheeting that was a bit stiffer and I extended the center sheeting out one rib bay then covered top and bottom out to the end of the center sheeting with 2 oz. glass cloth. I saw the wings fold on a "stock" SE during some wild maneuvers - THAT was the reason I did what I did.

I've seen one SE with the Macs Products stubby tuned muffler (GP #LXZ652) added to the OS46 - made a noticeable difference in power. Fairly quiet too.

You will love this plane and don't let anyone try to pry it out of your hands once you start flying it!!

Mike

After reading all the good things about it I took it out last night about 9 and started building the wing. Finished framing it up by 10. Open the box and the thing builds itself practically. Pretty nice kit. Hopefully I get time tonight to do more. Should be able to finish the wing and start the fuse. Fun.

Flyboy, did you completed the wing in an hour , you must be using CA, I'm planing on buying the same kit and hoping to build build a little faster, I'ved beed using wood glue to build an LT-40, it's now all built and ready for sanding and covering. seemed like it took forever.

Thanks for the info on props. I still have not started it, maybe tonight. I think I'll hold off on any mods since this is my first kit and I have no idea what I'm doing What do you guys think about the gas tank? I understand that the .46 will burn up 8oz pretty quick, but I dont want to get one that is too large since I'm still a total novice builder.

Thanks,

With stock landing gear the best prop for a 46 2-stroke will be an 11.5x4 APC. I use an 11x4 cuz I haven't been able to find another 11.5x4. The 11x4 APC works well, too. The 12.25x3.75 would work better if the plane sat higher. I can't seem to get much thrust out of an 11x4 wood prop, so it's APC.

I have had no issues with the stock rudder or tailwheel. Flys great, but the Morris Knife for me is more fun. I installed the tail wires and it really stiffens up the soft balsa tail group.

It's a really easy plane to cover. The removable wings make it a piece of cake! Just don't leave any of the parts at home when you get ready to fly!

Hi all..

I opened up the kit tonight. I am having a tough time with the instructions from the get go. I plan on reading through them totally again, but here is my first question. I was not able to find the answer with the search...

Wing Spars:

Question #1
This is the first step of the kit and already im a little confused. The 4 - 1/4" x 24" sticks are actually about 1/4" x 24.5 or so.. I did cut the 4 - 1/4" x 11" sticks down to 10 5/8" as indicated in the plans but I'm kinda scared to touch the "24" inch sticks until I know if I should trim them or not since there is nothing about it in the book.
Anyone else notice this?

This is my first kit... I really appreciate all of your help.

-Jake

Leave them a little long and sticking out the tip, then when you are done, before you put on the tip rib for final sanding, you can cut them off and make them flush and glue the wingtip rib on. Sometimes they do that.

I have about an hour in the building of it so far, maybe and hour and a half. The ribs are all on the spars, the shear webs are in, the wing tubes are in, and it is ready to be sheeted. Can't get the damn phone to quit ringing so I get to work on it about 5 minutes at a time. Slows you down a ton. It does build really fast though.