RCU Forums - Sig Smith Miniplane

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RE: Sig Smith Miniplane

Build it to the plans and you will be happy with it.

Mine is built exactly to the plans with zero incidence top and bottom. I love the way it flies. It balanced perfectly with no extra weight, and needed almost no trim. I haven't had any of the problems with excessive down elevator trim that I have heard in other posts. I haven't had any ground handling issues either. It goes nice and straight down the runway with a little rudder and doesn't have a tendency to nose over on our grass runway.

If I do it again, I'll build to the plans again.

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane

Hi Icegs,
Thanx for the input. My incidence meter tells me I'm at zero now. My issue is that the wing dowel contacts plywood plate very low. Nowhere near the plan view. In order to get the plan location for the hole I would have to really remove a lot of wing saddle stock. I think I'll just use it the way it is since everything looks nice and level and square. Thanks again.
Dave

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane

Hey if anyone is lookin for some trim designs here is my dads full scale for some ideas!!!

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane

Here is an interesting link you may want to check out. The Smith Mini Plane gets revived:

http://www.skyclassic.net/sky_disk/index.html

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane

I had a crash with my beloved Smith...nearly 50% damage...both wings, fuselage cut verticaly just aft the cockpit, l/gear striped off...

January I'll be starting her rebuild.

As She was a bit fat with the oratex I'll try Monokote or something liter this time and a few tricks to light'er up.

Yeas...the crash was my fault...one of those you just can't believe I stil do...

Ble sky to all.

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane

Has anyone tried putting floats on the Smith Miniplane and tried flying it off water? Results?

RE: Sig Smith Miniplane

TCraft Lover.... Put the piece needing to be cut under the other in place pieces, mark and cut a smidge long, fit and sand... fit and sand you'll get a perfect fit after doing a couple with basically no sanding

For pieces where that's not possible.. main pieces already pinned.... lay on top and mark from the top following the lines of the in place pieces.

Smith Miniplane Power

Quote:

Originally Posted by planebuilder66 (Post 9316840)

As usual, if you just stab that throttle stick to full, you will have a handful on takeoff, I never got that chance to do that here in CT. Our runways are almost all grass, and unless you get there the day they mow the grass, power management is a must. I did splay the gear a few degrees and set my tailwheel as far back as possible when building it. But I never noticed any bad ground handling issues due to feeding in power smoothly and letting it build ground speed before pulling back smoothly on the stick. It's a scale plane, why would you want to yank it into the sky like a 3D machine anyway? I powered mine with a Magnum 45 abc and it flew fine, not unlimited vertical, but plenty to do anything it was asked of to do.

Dear all, I am planning on building my second Smih Miniplane and I saw this thread. I had my old Miniplane with a Webra 60 Black Head swinging a 12x6. It had unlimited vertical power and tracked quite straight on take offs with little rudder needed. (I do not recall more than a couple of ground loops in more than 5 years, all my fault).
The Webra 60 engine was extremely reliable and did not give any balance issues, in fact I still need a bit of lead on the nose. It did have a little tendency to go to the left on looping though which was easily corrected either by rudder or best, by doing them at less than full throttle.

I am now considering a 4 stroke and so far my short list is an Enya 53, OS 52, Saito 56 or 62 (the compact one) and I am planning to use lighter batteries, and servos than the ones I used back on 1990. Having flown the model extensively, I believe that a bit of weight saving (the plane actually is a light airframe as with all Sig kits of which I am a great fan), smart location of radio gear (all the way forward!) and powerful but reasonably sized engine is the best approach. I believe the 70 will make the model definitively nose heavy or else heavy in general. Keep your 70 for the Liberty Sport, another incredible Sig biplane (I have two of them also, one 20 years old and still flying strong..)

Best,

Biplano.

Hi Tiff!
Sorry to see the crash damage on your SMP. The repairs look fantastic. What covering material are you using? I will be starting a build on my Sig 1/4 scale Cub shortly and I still have not decided what I'm going to use for covering.

Just saw your message, TCraft Lover, sorry.
My Smith was covered with Oratex.
It's a bit heavy but gives a real scale look, adds some structural strenght and it's aplication is absolutely straigthforward.
For your1/4 scale Cub I believe Oratex will be perfect and I believe they have in the right yelow color for it.

Best regards

Tiffoso

Thanks for the input Tiff. I should have been more specific, I'm building the model of Hazel Sig's clipped wing cub. So I would probably be looking for white covering to use as a base for blue paint. Is your SMP painted?

Oh, now I get it.
No, my Smith covering is not painted. The red and white are cover color. But in the original cover (red with yelow stripes) the yelow was airbrush painted.
Just this time I happened to have some white Monokote laying around and I chose to use it.
Anyway, the Oratex accepts paint, no problem about that.

Any photos of your Cub?

best Regards

Tiffoso

Thanks Tiff for the info on your SMP covering. I'm really unfamiliar with Oratex. I have no photos yet of the CWC. The fuse is about 85% framed. I'd be glad to post a shot or two of it if you would like to see. That sucker is big!

I can just imagine the size of your Cub.
It'll be beaitiful in flight...
Share some pictures when you can.
About the Oratex...same as Monokote, shrinks a bit less, heavier and sturdier than Monokote and the like.
..and does NOT like to be cleaned with alcohol...it's paint goes off rather easily. Use som other way to clean the airframe after your flights.

Best Regards!

Tifoso

I enjoyed very much reading this thread about one of my favorite planes. My Smith Miniplane had a re-maiden this weekend after 15 years. It was completely destroyed in 2000, and a friend of mine rebuilt it beautifully. Despite the terrible pilot, the biplane flew great. It is powered by an OS 46AX using 11x7 prop. The only problem is the tendency to climb whenever I add power. I think I´ll add a little down thrust.
Regards.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2102012 http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2102013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzpWW1iYaYo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1DSedtKeW4