I would love to hear from someone who built and flew the Royal Staggerwing.

I have

Rich

I was hoping you would provide some information about building and flying the kit. Your power, weight and other info that help me decide whether to build it or not. The kit is going for serious money these days ans whilei am interested in the plane I'd like some positive feedback before I begin. I have built 4 Royal kits before and they came out pretty good but I had prior knowledge of them as they were more popular (60 corsair,stuka. 40 spitfire 1/2 a 109) but no one exccept you seems to know anything about this one. It is surprising as this is a very appealing plane....silas (caster2)

Since you've built Royal kits before, you know that your work is cut out. After all the carving and sanding, you end up with a great model. I have an RCV 90 in mine. It's plenty of power. It flys great, somewhat fast. You need to get the speed up before rotation on take off and you need to keep speed up on landing. It has a tendency to snap if you slow it down too much. Covered mine with Coverite and painted with Nelsons paint. I wanted to put retracts in it but couldn't find any that were thin enough to fit in the wing. I'd be happy to answer any other questions you have.

Rich

Hey Rich thanks for the info and quick reply. I will research the retract issue since for me a HUGE must is the retracts. If I can't work that out I won't build it . Glad you responded. Thanks very much....silas By the way what is your finished weight?

I built and posted a few times on my Royal Staggerwing. Here are a pair of links to the threads:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_15...tm.htm#1623237

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_18...tm.htm#1880100

I used the Hangar-9, 60 size P-51 or P-47 retracts and they will fit the stock wing with only slight modification and no bumps portruding on the upper surface (unlike the ones referenced on the Royal plans). As a plus, they are now being shipped with hard struts and lock adjustments that were not available when I built my D-17. They held up great on our rough southern grass field and never gave a moment's trouble. If you have any other questions, drop me an e-mail and I'll send you my phone number.

I love the D-17s so much that I am building a tiny Dumas Staggerwing (17" wingspan) for electric power and 3 channels. I'm attaching a picture of both just for the heck of it...

quint

If I remember right, it's a little over 9 lbs. Quint, thanks for the heads up on the retracts. The Hanger 9 were not around when I built mine. I have another Royal kit on the shelf. Think I'll order a set and put them in the box so if I build it later I'll have them. I also have a Byron in the box--just looking for time. Silas, make sure you add the flaps. You will really need them for making the landings less nerve racking.

Quint, your picture looks almost orange. When I was young my dad owned a D-17. It was orange with dark blue trim. The picture is almost an exact match. He also had a G model later with the same color scheme.

By coincidence the Century 21 fabric matches the paint chip color often used by Beech on the D-17s. I had a harder time getting the colors right on the interior upholstery, but luckily the Navy Aerospace museum is located at the Pensacola Naval base and is close enough to me for visits to their D-17 on display.

I used the Robarts, medium size retractable tail wheel, but would opt to use the large size if doing it again since the plastic on the medium unit is too soft for regular use on a 10# plane. The rigging is 80# test monofilament fishing line since the full size Staggerwing had it's turnbuckles hidden in the wing/fuse and required a smooth rigging on the model. Here is another 'in the bones' and one taxying just before her maiden flight

Quint, great pictures. Good idea on the tail wheel. I actually have a large Robart haning on the wall of my shop. I put the control horn for the rudder inside the fuselage. Might have somewhat less rudder movement, but it hasn't seemed to be a problem. It took a lot of carving on the tail cone which I made removable.

Quint Thanks for your response After getting all hyped about the Royal Staggerwing I found out the kits are going for 300. + so I am going to build mine from an old Aristo-craft kit. 45"wingspan . The problem is that the wings are flat bottom so I am going to use a set of cores from and old Pulsar Bipe kit ( and acrobat from 80"s which I will modify to fit. They have a symetrical airfoil and are thicker 1"1/8" so that will help with the retracts. I think a saito 70 will work fine and a set of either spring -air or great plans mechanical for the retracts. (no tail wheel retract) Do you have any other suggestions? (its funny ,my first post on this subject brought no response and then both you and Rich came in together....thanks. By the way you can send me your phone # and i will call you if you have some additional info and don't feel like typing....silas

Considering the total $$$$ I put in my completed Staggerwing with engine and all the other components, the diference in the cost of the Royal kit and others is almost chump change (lol). Good luck on your build and post some pictures when you finish.

Hi Quint, Your plane is sooo nice . I noticed though that you didn't bother with

the rear strut on the gear or the flap on the well cover. Was there a reason?


caster2

I think I saw somwhere, Where Top-Flite is doing a Staggerwing Beechcraft, Arf.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXLVG5&P=7

Right and Robart has retracts. About $280.00.