Sig kadet senior. Taildragger?
 

Anyone have any ideas the best way to make my sig kadet senior a taildragger? Maybe some pictures to help guide me through it? And where is the best location for the main gear? Ah,,,,so many questions.
Thanks guys,,TAZZZZ

Move the main gear mount so that the axles are at least in line with the leading edge of the wing, or SLIGHTLY forward of that.
For the tailwheel, just add a plywood mount to the back of the fuse, mount your tailwheel and connect to the rudder if the rudder is behind and below the elevator.or, if the rudder is above the stab, use a cable pull/pull set up from the rudder servo.

I was kinda thinking of mounting a servo to one side or th other,,because the bottom of the rudder sits on top of the stabilizer, I can't get to the bottom of rudder. TAZZZZ. What do you think? Yes,no. Just an idea. Thx TAZZZZ.

You could do that. What I've done in the past with ugly sticks, where the rudder is above the stab, is run pull pull cables from the rudder servo down to the tailwheel steering arm..I can't find a photo of that setup right now.
Moving the main gear forward will help a little to compensate for the weight of a servo in the rear of the fuse.

Thankyou sir ,sounds good to me, good idea,I'll give that some thought, I'm gonna do some mote brainstorming. TAZZZZ

Go here, one of the few sites you can view and download Model Aircraft Design, https://www.scribd.com/doc/55837270/...ircraft-Design

Chapter 16 deals with design and positioning of landing gear. Others who want to dabble in scratch building/design this book has a ton of information.

I have converted many trainers to tail draggers. In fact I encourage those who are building to go straight to a tail dragger and skip the trike gear altogether. Just about every high performance airframe that will follow your trainer will be a tail dragger anyhow so you may as well learn from the get go.

To convert a 40 size trainer to the tail dragger I like to improve the whole set up. I start with a good steer able tail wheel at least with a 1.5 diameter light weight wheel (hard foam Sullivan). For the mains I like to use the flat aluminium gear as its much more robust and easily mounted to the bottom of the airframe. Larger Sullivan foam main wheels in the 3 inch or larger makes for better control on grass. The landing gear and wheels should space the prop tip around 2.5 inches or better from the ground when held level. A little bit of 1/8 ply.

Cut and shape some 1/8 ply to match the taper at the underside rear of the fuselage. 3 to 4 inches in length depending on the tail wheel mounting bracket. Sand the outside edges round to match up to the shape of the fuselage bottom. Mark and remove the balsa bottom so the ply sits flush and glue in place. Mount the tail wheel then you will need to connect it to your rudder control. If the rudder extends all the way to the bottom of the fuselage you may be able to connect a small linkage direct from the rudder control horn to activate the steer able tailwheel. If the rudder ends above the elevator you will have to run another control rod from the rudder servo to the tail wheel. You need very little movement of the tail wheel to steer the model so the linkage should be in close at the activation point and as far out as possible on the tail wheel arm.

For the main gear the ply needs to be at least twice the width of the aluminums gear mounting area. Mount the gear in the middle of the plate then position in place on the bottom of the fuse. Cut and shape the edges like you did for the tail wheel. Remove the balsa and glue ply in place. You can reinforce from the inside with a bit of square or triangular stock.

If you carefully split the covering down the middle and peel it back before removing the balsa wood you might get lucky and be able to re-iron it back in place. I don’t worry to much as I cover the area with enough covering to make it fuel proof.

If you have flown the plane or run the engine, the oil, even after cleaning can make it difficult to get the covering to stick. I use trim solvent and wipe the old covering down before applying a patch over old covering. For best results round the corners of the patch to keep it from lifting. Apply the patch while trim solvent is still damp and smooth out patch. After the area has dried iron and shrink in place using the lowest heat to do the job.

You're welcome.
Let us know how you make out.

Hi Tazzz,

Why not not take a look at the Sig Senior Sport ARF? It's a tail dragger with all of the details already worked out for you. You can probably pick up a landing gear set from Sig as well. See if the assembly manual is available on line and go from there.

I have a Sig Senior Sport and it's a great airplane.

Good luck!

What I've done about the tail wheel when converting Kadets to taildraggers is to move the fin and rudder back to where the trailing edge of the rudder is about even with the trailing edge of the elevator.Then make the elevator a two-piece one with a connector in front and a gap in the middle for clearance for the rudder. Add enough to the bottom of the rudder so it goes all the way to the bottom of the fuselage. Then use pushrods connected to the elevator and rudder as with most any other taildragger. (The pushrod arrangement on the Kadet Senior, with the rod coming out of a hole at the back of the fuselage won't work with this setup.)

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2192710 Something else to think about: The Kadet Senior has a lot of built-in down thrust, which without a nose gear to hold the nose up on the takeoff roll makes mine want to nose over if I give it too much throttle. I can manage by holding full up elevator until it's ready for the tail to come off the ground, but if I were doing it again I might take some of that down thrust out. But I'd try to find someone who has done it to ask how it works first.

Great job on that "PT-19" ! It looks like it might have more than just a bit of Kadet DNA in it. I did a Kadet based yellow Cub ( a"Kubdet") last summer and had fun fooling folks at the flying field with it. I bet your PT-19 fools people too. And yes, on the Kubdet I also moved the entire vertical stab assy forward as you suggested to convert to a taildragger. That change makes life (and the conversion) easier.

I scratch built a Kadet LT-40. The tail wheel gave me a big headache because of the rudder location. I purchased a Sullivan Tail Wheel Bracket. It would not work but it did give me ideas. I finally made my own tail wheel assembly. In the picture the vertical wire is cut above the collar. The horizontal wire is attached to the rudder. The assembly is easily removable.

Planning ahead in case of problems, I added a hatch on the bottom of the fuselage for access. The opening is covered over now. I can cut the covering and add the hatch when needed.

Great ideas guys,,now it's back to brainstorming with all this food for thought you fed me.

Thanks for all your expertise. TAZZZZ

Using the Kadet Sport tail gear is the easiest option.

I converted my Kadet into a tail dragger in this thread. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/kit-...ior-sport.html

I used the Kadet Sport's tail and landing gear, along with it's cowl.