It's good advice, though.

Pink tape, or ignoring it, are the two options that come to my mind.

No cherries. No vid. Sorry.

I watched the Angels from my house. The P-51's, too.

Last night, when leaving the flying field, I was buzzed by a P-51. Those Merlins sound great at full song !

Hello Folks,

I've just come across this thread in a search. I've got one of these kits sitting in the wings waiting to get built. I now just need to go back to page 1 and start reading about this great bird/kit :D

You will find a lot of interesting old factory photos of the STA in FickR posted by the San Diego Air & Space museum.

Good Luck with your build NO153Y! If you get stuck, ask for help...

I did system checks and some taxi tests with my SIG Ryan this past weekend at a Memorial Fun-Fly at my local club. I had purchased mine mostly built from the widow of a former member last year and finally got back to it a few weeks ago. The taxi tests showed it to be a little squirley and the engine didn't like being cowled. I made one high speed run but it veered left off into the high grass and flipped over. Some minor covering damage (it's very old and brittle) but that's all...except for my bruised ego, of course. The CG is still a little forward of the recommended positon so I'm going to try adding some bracing to the tail and a little counter weight to see if I can get it back to the position shown on the plans. It got a lot of attention and I hope it flies well. It's always hard trying to straighten out an old model that someone else built and has been sitting for a long time. My first post on this starts on page 24, post #577 for those interested in it's history.

Jaybird

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2016356http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2016357http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2016358

She cleaned up alright Jaybird. Hopefully you get it sorted out and your maiden goes well.

Jaybird that is a beautiful STA best off luck with the maiden!

+1

Thanks, it's still pretty rough in places...but looks good from a distance. I plan to add the upper wing braces after I know it flies well. As far as the color scheme, the builder did all the covering including the checkerboard and added the red diamond at the top of the fuselage just behind the firewall. it was easier to paint the whole cowl red than try to remove the covering and mask the cowl off for red and white.

Jaybird

I'm still broke but there is a SIG STA kit posted to the site today for $200 + $30 shipping.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=989411

I finally got it in the air today but it took some work. One issue was the fuel line from the tank was split at the end of the brass exit tube. A fair amount of fuel had spilled inside the tank compartment. Luckily the foam padding absorbed most of it. I removed the tank and fixed the tube, replaced the fuel line and cut new foam spacers to hold it in place. I also replaced the high speed needle valve assembly as the old one was loose and the knurl was worn. I also had to replace the glow plug even though the one in it was new when I started running it last week. It will start and idle well and produce good power now. The take off was a non-event...nice ground roll, the tail came up, a little back pressure and up it went. It needed a fair amount of nose down trim to keep level flight into the wind and just a little aileron trim. Rolls and loops nicely and motors along at a good clip at just half throttle. I tried the flaps at altitude and couldn't really see how it reacted to help or not. Slowed it up at altitude and full up elevator produced a nice "falling leaf". Added power and flew out of it nicely. A couple laps around the landing pattern and it was time to come in under the telephone lines off the north end of the runway. It stayed nice and steady and touched down with a short roll out. Whew! I need to find a way to get more cooling air OUT of the cowling and I think it will be all set. No in flight pics but there were witnesses.

Jaybird

Congratulations Jaybird! That's why fuel proofing the inside tank area is so important, once the balsa gets soaked you've ruined your model...I bet it looked great in the air. :cool:

Congratulations on a successful maiden flight!

Thanks. Now that I know it flies, It will be fun to finish cleaning it up and add some more details to it. It's a very handsome plane in the air and fast too.

Jaybird

Here is some tail art you may want along with the decals I had made for my SC-W/SC-M project. The full N number on the STA is NC17360 and she is still flying.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2018287http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2018288

Here is another shot from a PT-22 along with a link to a pilot's manual (scroll to bottom of the page). https://sites.google.com/site/ranger...r-5n721rfromst
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2018289

The decals look like Gary Sibert's woprk, at Decal-it. Are they ?

Third flight not so good. Came in dead stick and hit hard on the mains and broke the rear brace support blocks out of the wing. I was afraid it would happen at some point as it looked a little weak. Not sure when I'll get to the repairs and recovering. I saw that Vincent added blocks and supports into his wing as he built it. What have other people done to brace the landing gear from flexing fore and aft?

Darn.

Jaybird

Good eye Tom! Yes, Gary over at Decal-It did make them he also made a set of decals for a Civil Air Patrol livery for my Cessna 182. I am also planning to order some N number sets for the Ryan SC-W & SC-M project. I like his work! The decals are 1/5th scale and I laid the dime in the middle to give a sense of scale. The Ryan S/N plates were made with three different engines listed.

The four registration placards, in the bottom left of the pics, are the give away. Nobody does as well as Gary, on that stuff.

I just requested a quote on order No. 3 yesterday.

Gary does superb graphic design work but I really wish his finish step was through the vinyl cutter. I don't like the plastic excess with the lettering, which is hideable with a clear coat but that is another step that most often is not required elsewise.

It depends on what you order, or the process that he chooses. If you want something a certain way, discuss it with him, and see what he can come up with.

Tom is right, if you don't tell Gary he will never know to change it.

I found out the serial number plate I was using was later than when my aircraft was built. With the aid of a friend I was able to run down the one Ryan SC-W with the original 1938 plate and get a picture of it. The airplane in question is in Australia and being lovingly flown and cared for! Here is the original plate picture i sent to Gary and my decals in 1/5th scale. You can get the decals from Gary @Decal-it.

Mike
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2038701 http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2038702