Has anyone out there started with this kit? Want to hear others opinions and have not seen any discussions on it, except for one.

RJM

Had a friend order one , said the top wing struts were not to his liking, sent it back . I never saw the kit or plans but he knows what he`s doing. I suppose it will be forever before Balsa USA brings theirs out. That should be a pretty good one!!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>big max 1935>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I saw a Balsa USA ad in AMA on the SE5A

Also check out. www.funaero.com They have a SE5A

Go for Balsa USA's new S.E.5 . G-23/26 sized. Should be a great good one!

Just finishing one up. Yes it does have some poor design on wing struts but with a little work you can over come those problems. For the price not a bad kit. I have a YS 120 for power. Coupled upper ailerons to lower with a rod and will use a servo in lower wing. Wish there was some way to remove lower wing without the gear strut being disconnected. Over all weight seems OK but have not put it on the scales.

RC Report has a review in the June Issue.

Don't forget FunAero's SE5a. From what I have read its a good build and flyier. The latest edition of MAN as drawings, etc for a 1/4 SE5a.. From what I can see it looks real close to scale.. not for the inexperienced builder. Soon, (next winter? lol)I hope to finish my Duncan Hutson SE5a. Too bad he went out of business.. his planes are excellent. Regards BobH.

Hello Everybody

I just want to refresh the thread 8-)
Possibly are there any new opinions/facts/experience on Dynaflite SE-5A?

Thanks,
Yuri

I went ahead and purchased the FunAero SE5 a. It arrived last Friday but I have not open the box. I is a little smaller than the Dynaflite but it is laser cut.

My winter project is finished. Here is the result.

The last Sunday weather conditions were good enough for the first flight.
Engine: ASP-91FS
Prop: 15x7 Robbe (Max. 8100 RPM)
Fuel: Coolpower 15%

She flies well - the flight is slow and steady. She can even glide -- the engine quitted once at low throttle in the air.

But landings with the plane are a bit of a problem for me.
First three attempts were nose-over, fortunately without any serious damage though.

More pictures are at http://www.askyyk.com/gallery/raf-se-5a

My buddy just finished his and it flies great at 1/2 throttle with a Magnum .91 4 stroke. It's covered with flat Monokote and the ABS is painted with Lusterkote. I can't remember how much it weighed but this thing has a lot of wing area, and it floats like a big ole kite!

RJM,
I`m not sure why the designer set the top wing so high. I think that it would be fairly easy to shorten the cabanes and interplanes to place the upper wing at a more scale position. Otherwise, most SE5a`s fly great.

John

I compared the plans of Dynaflite S.E.-5a with the 3-view scale drawings printed in
Squadron/Signal S.E.5A In Action.
The distance between the wings of the model seems to be in accordance with the prototype.

Yuri

Hi all, I am in the process of building this model. Have the tail feathers and both center wing area's done. Is there anything I should be wary of with the rest of the kit? I would love to see more pictures of your models

Yes. Pay close attention to the plans when building the wings. I was not real fond of the way the plans show the center construction. The ailerons are a little tricky too.
Z

I found out what you meant about keeping a close eye on the wing plan. I agree about the ailerons also. Did up the basic fuse the other night.............I think I must have had one balsa stretcher a little shorter than the other. The fuse that sat on the plan was perfect. The top part after sheeting and sanding turned out to be fishtailed............[:@] I will cut it apart next week or so and try it again. Right now I am busy assembling my CMPro P47. Man is that a nice bird.

SE5A (dynaflite)
I was seriously thinking of buying this one,
what is the exact problem of the wing struts (poor design???)
any other kind of problems in the building process??
I've been reading about the flying characteristics, she
is a nice flyer (the video from Tower shows it a bit very fast
with a three point landing guess to protect it from nose flipping )
with good slow flying .......
Do you think that the 91 FS engine is at the low power end.???
Regards
Hisham

Well mine is almost done. I covered it with BalsaRite and Polyester cloth. Coated and recoated and recoated etc etc etc with clear then flat olive drab. I am powering it with an ASP 80, will see how that works out. Its a very very light model, I havent put it on a scale yet but I also have a CG Ultimate that outwieghs it by quite a bit. Well we will see. I am going to put the finishing touches on it in the next few days and will post pictures. Hopefully not crash pictures.

By the way, the wing struts are way to tall, not much I could do about them as I had already glued in the pockets in the fuse. They set the angle, with the angle set I had no choice on reaching the mounts in the upper wing. Wish I would have thought about it sooner. Looks kind of silly with such a high top wing. And yes, I did do some research. its way to high. But I am guessing they did this to improve flight.

Here are some pictures of the "almost" ready to fly kit

OK, I did some comparisons of my own with a caliper and dozens of different views of the actual se5a, and while it may not be exactly scientific as looking at actual manufacturer's plans, I did manage to come up with consistent results within a small range.

I measured the difference between the height of the fuse right behind the prop and the distance from the fuse to the top/middle of the upper wing. I consistently got a range between 40%-42%. (The fuse to wing distance 40% of the height of the fuse.)

On the Dynaflite model it came out to 48%-51%!

Also found from the one drawing I located that the wing separation is 1 to .85 Strange, becausw I always thought the biplane effect would hinder performance at anything under 1 to 1.

Maybe Dynaflite used that 1 to 1 ratio and that's why the wing looks goofy.

I can't see any good reason to separate the wings any more than the full scale has them. As light as the planes build and with the lift these type of planes generate, typically flying isn't an issue. FYI the full scale has 5 degrees incidence and 5 degrees dihedral on the top and bottom wings and 5 degrees incidence on the stab.
Another way to measure your wing separation is to take a front view, measure the wing length vs separation and compare that to your plane. It will give you a ratio without involving the fuse. I say that because you may not know if your fuse is the proper size.

Very good point.

I'm getting ready to start this kit, and I believe it can be worked with to make it look much more scale than the instructions intended. At the $119 I paid I think it's an unbelievable deal for this size airplane. Man there's a ton of wood in the box! The balsa alone is almost worth it.

Anyway, stock may not be so scale, but for the price, I think you get a great "canvas" to paint on, and there's no reason it can't look like one of the pricey perfectly scale kits that set you back $300.

I'd start a build/mod thread if anyone would be interested. Maybe we can all rewrite the manual and make this kit fly off the shelves.

I have one of these kits as well, and plan on starting it soon. I would love to hear about your build and any mods. I intend to lower the top wing a bit, though have not done any research yet to determine how much.

Bob, where did you happen to come across those figures? I did a quick search on the net and you would not believe the variations I came up with! upper 1, lower 0, tail 0 ,upper 3, lower 2, tail 1, tail 0, upper -1.5! blah blah blah.

I take mine to the field every time, it is and will remain my favorite plane in the hanger.

I agree that it doesnt look exactly scale but unless you have nothing but scale experts you fly with you will enjoy the plane and its looks. I would love to see you do a build thread, that would give me ideas to retrofit on my own SE5a.