RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

I dont remember, but the SM, full scale, is very small. So stuff the biggest you can, i did. If you look at my plane from the top, mine is the biggest I could do. Ray

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

I haven't got to that stage yet, but have an old bust from a crashed bird that is 1/5 scale and it seems like it would work. Agree with warebird2 that you need to stuff the largest one you can into the cockpit as it is a tiny plane.

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

The original SM was designed for home built in a one car garage. The Pitt look like a giant plane compared to the SM After I did the pilot I glued my windscreen and I was done !! Enjoy it !!
Ray

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

OK...just so you guys don't think I am all talk...some proof of progress. Working on the wheel pants this aft, and possibly may finish the cowl by cutting holes for the pitts and needle valve. Next step tail feathers. This is a slow build for me for some reason, but am enjoying it without rush. If I can only stop getting side tracked it would move along a little faster. Just purchased (real cheap!!!) an old used Balsa USA Phaeton II Bipe. Had to change a few things to flight ready it and now waiting for a nice day to fly it. Weather has been bad up here for the last two weeks....so no real excuse for lack of building time!! [:o]

So far have made a couple mods to the SMP (nothing drastic). Beefed up the landing gear mounts slightly with tri-stock, sheeted the gear as opposed to the "epoxolite" so hope it holds up. Added + 2 degrees incidence for the stab and 2 degrees right thrust to engine as a starting point.

Is look'n like a plane now! :D

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

RC I am a canadian by birth. I moved from Toronto to south florida 17 years ago. I know your weather. You will have plenty of time to build between now and march. If it is nice go fly.

I have only one advice when building - any plane for that matter. Make it lighter instead of beefier, use as light an engine as you can. The full size SM was not a rocket ship, and every pilot was just trying to keep the wings level, and come out alive of any landing. it is a fun little plane and it looks great in the air.

Ray

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

With the fullscale wingspan of 17 feet this little plane is just over 20% or slightly bigger than 1/5 scale. So, the 1/5 scale pilot is the correct size for this plane.

rc_wings - looking good. I really think you will be glad you added the incidence to the stab. Over and over guys state the need of down trim. My experiments certainly support the stab change. Good Luck.......

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

warbirds2 - Keep it light is good advice. Lighter will always fly better! I consider myself a light builder and use judgment/experience (or advice if available) when required to add strength or lighten where needed. The landing gear "beefing" was negligible in terms of weight, but added a little strength and possibly more for piece of mind for that possible "not so graceful" landing. Enjoy that Florida sunshine......I am jealous! Have to admit even though it has been a terrible summer, I have managed to do quite a bit of flying this year.

RICKSTUBBZ - Working in mods from advice the good folks on this thread have been providing. ;)

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

RC I was aware of your bad summer, the family told me. There is always next summer.
Look at the pictures of my SM up in the posts. You can see, experience lead me to add a piano wire loaded by a rubber band back to the bottom of the fuselage. Act like a shock absorber. The pictures were taken after many flights, and the plane stand up. Good flier, good landing gear, or both.

That little plane has character !! I love her.
Ray

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

warbird2, yes I did see your very nicely done red SMP, and cool touch with the LG shocks. Will keep it in mind as we have a grass field so additional "springs" may come in handy. I see you cut your white trim just short of the cowl to keep from having to paint it in two shades. Was thinking of doing the same, but was not sure if it would take away from the looks, until I saw yours. It turned out great and barely noticeable unless one knows otherwise.

Only thing I am kicking myself for is, I should have attempted to convert this baby to electric power. Was struggling with the battery pack location and access, but now that it is framed up, can almost fit a car battery through the cockpit. Not sure why I never saw that initially???? Maybe SMP #2 will be electric, as already headed down the glow path with this one. I enjoy flying both...so really does not matter. Can't wait to fly it!

rc_wings

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

RC Covering the SM was not a quick job so when I came to that detail, there was not hesitation, I cut it short. Who knows? dont tell anyone that Ray made it a round corner. You can go to my gallery, and I have far many more planes than that still. Are you close to North Bay, I am not familiar with your city.
Ray

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

Ray, I won't tell if you don't when I finish mine! Wyebridge is just a small community close to where I live. It is near a larger town called Midland, which is on the southern tip of Georgian Bay and approx half way between Toronto and North Bay...or there abouts. Most of our club members are from Midland, but the field is only about 4 miles (7 km) from my house. Beautiful country and well enough away from the big city, but still close enough if you know what I mean. Other than the weather, why did you relocate to Florida?

Marko

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

Marko, thanks, Midland OK. I learned to fly full scale in Oshawa. I bought a Cessna 172 from a friend of mine living in Pembroke. After a few years I sold that plane to a farmer living north of barrie and I bought myself a Piper arrow III. This is about 5 years before I moved south. A few months ago, one day I punched the call sign of my old Cessna in the internet. C-GQYR. I learned that my old Cessna crashed near North Bay. The plane was destroyed with loss of life. Sad, I had so many good memories in that plane. Later I sold the Piper. I checked it, it is still alive registered around quebec city. But it has been repainted.
At that point, I had two young boys, and I wanted to see them grow up. I switched to model airplane.
The oldest of the two soloed after one flight. He has been the test pilot of all the planes I did. He flew ducted fan at 13 and turbine at 14. I kept them off the street. I did my goal. Never had any problem with them. I have two, two car garages to store my planes, trailer and to build. My neighbors think I belong in some type of special hospital. They enjoy coming over and look at my planes. I also taxi in the street, we have a quiet neiborhood. OoFF !!
Ray

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

Ray,

Fear not as you are not alone in that neighbors think you belong in a special hospital. I get the same feeling here. I may be sick too, but can't think of any better way of spending my free time when not working or enjoying quality time with family.

Cheers to successfully raising the kids! I have three teenage girls that seem to be on the right track as well. Although they are not too interested in RC planes anymore, they do enjoy the odd trip to the field to watch their dad fly and take the buddy box for a flight or two.

Marko

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

Wheel pants glued and cut. Just waiting for a mail order of hardware so I can attach them. Cowl look'n so pretty....hate to poke holes in er...but guess I gotta in order to fit the pitts muffler on. [&o]

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

Allo, remember the old formula for cooling when you do the holes, one in, four out the cowling has nice cheeks, then around my Pitt pipes I only removed enough material to work the formula. Looking at the front picture of my plane you can tell. My fuel overflow is on the right in the picture. That old sig cowling material is pretty easy. and takes a nice finish. Good luck with the holes.
Ray

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

While doing some repair and maintenance on my “Smith” the other day I found a crack in the trailing edge of the stab.

P-1 the pin is pointing to the area where it was cracked. For the most part a little bit of CA took care of it. But, I decided to make some tail brace wires to go on this thing.

P-2 shows the triangle blocks I cut to create a place to fasten the wire braces and two blocks to help stiffen up the trailing edge near the center of the stab. Also the cutouts I made in the covering are a little hard to see.

P-3 the blocks are glued in place. Rudder was done the same way

P-4 drilled 1/4” holes in the blocks in order to glue in a piece of wood dowel

P-5 dowels glued in place.

P-6 shows dowel position in rudder and stab ready to drill for a 4-40 screw

P-7 In the center is the unmodified connector with the other two having the angle bent and plastic removed.

P-8 this is what I use to solder this stuff.

P-9, 10, 11 show the finished product and how I used the tail wheel block to tie in the bottom wires.

The tail is as stiff as can be now. The wire is .047”. I have no idea what size the connectors were. I used these because it is what I had. As mentioned I used 4-40 screws. With out a doubt smaller connectors and 2-56 screws would be perfect.

Ultimately this will be another experiment for me to compare the old slightly flexible tail to one that has no give to speak of.

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

Nice touch. Keep us posted on the experimental work!

Off topic...is that the Citabria Pro on the bench I see framed up begging for your attention?

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

I knew you'd pick up on that. :eek:Yep, that's it.

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

;)Getting the final touches done to my SMP, I have inserted the tank and am currently looking at the battery installation. How have members of the forum managed to fit and also remove once fitted the rx battery pack once complete. I am considering a hatch though I feel that there may be a way around this problem. Any advise would be good.

Cheers
TAC221

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

Hi Miniplane builders, here is a shot or two of a full size Smith that my uncle and I restored a couple of years ago. I flew it about 11 hrs before it was sold. For pilot size reference I am 5' 6" and 200lbs. Nice job on the kit builds. I think I need to build one in my color scheme someday. Jeff

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

Jeff,

How sweet is that thing[8D]? I have had the chance to see one in "real life" years ago. So I am familiar with how small the actually are. Your picturs help show that. Just not much bigger than a car.

Thanks for posting the pictures.

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

Thanks Rick, I miss it, she was a blast to fly. Jeff

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

Very cool. I love the colour scheme!

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

Hello Pentwater, you are doing ok with saito 72 ,mine has flown nicley with that engine. Built my Smith Miniplane 2003. Believe it or not the model has had 1# saito 72 2# Saito 82 3# OS fs 70 mk11 and lastly OS fsALPHA 81. the Alpha 81 has climaxed all other motors for performance. The 81 is a drop in replacement for the OS70. All up weight is 7.5 pounds but as the miniplane is immensly strong there is no problem. All standard build except solid dural u/c. C of G fingers! under rear wing bolt heads upper wing. Slightly nose heavy. As the motor is side mounted 15 grams lead in lower port wing . 10 grams lead at tail wheel post to make up for slightly heavier engine. Radio DX7 spectrum and digital servos. 2200 NMHD 4.8 v. MODELTECHNICS fuel 10% nitro. Flying: very smooth and scale like performance throughout all aerobatics .I like to use large amounts of sky and keep everthing smooth ,we dont want a sick pilot!. Takeoff is gradual throttle opening with slight right rudder .By the way 13/8 APC prop.1degree down thrust ,pack behind mount. The model is an all weather performer due in no small way to its weight. Happy flying from United Kingdom.

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane build
 

Hi, Chelmer. Can you post a picture of your Smith./ a close up of your pilot also would be good. In order to stay healthy he has to wear goggle and a raincoat to face this lingering spitting rain that is always over UK when I visited.
Your 7 1/2 lbs, is this dry?
You can see mine in post 370.
Ray