# Another RC Plane build.



## Gary

More to follow in the next few days. :bluefish:


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## Gary

The kit will be here tomorrow. It's a Sig Kadet LT40. I ordered the engine, Saito 56 four stroke and some other stuff this morning and now have the building board ready.


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## Gary

This is 17 lb. box of wood that is over 4' long. lol


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## Gary

Starting with laminating the main spars hardwood with the 10 1/8" inboard 1/4x1/2" balsa back ups, I used Titebond because it gives me more time to get the lamination's lined up before the glue sets up. I also think that the slower curing water based wood glue will penetrate the hardwood better by soaking in longer and deeper making the lamination stronger. Yea, I have to wait longer in order for the glue to dry but the last time I tried CA in this process, I didn't get the pieces lined up fast enough, they were crooked, and not only did I have to spend the time sanding them to be even, now the ribs notches were oversized because the main spars were now undersized. I would rather spend an extra 30-40 minutes waiting for glue to dry than spend an extra 2 hours of sanding and trying to fill those gaps between the rib notches, and the spars.


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## Slightly Dangerous

Wow...memories!

The Kadet has been around almost as long as I have.


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## Gary

Slightly Dangerous said:


> Wow...memories!
> 
> The Kadet has been around almost as long as I have.


Still one of the most popular kits ever made. Made right here in the USA!

Got most of the port wing half tacked up today. It's straight. :wink:


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## Gary

Left wing near finished.


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## Gary

While waiting on the Titebond glue to dry, I moved on to the right wing half.

I should have the wing finished tomorrow.


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## Gary

Just some pictures. This is the covering. Most will be Ultracote which I have never used before, colors are mostly Apple Green with dabs of Lime Green in the mix. Yellow Monokote will be used for trim using the Windex method.










I got a little fancy with the control horns. I like these!


















The tail wheel although this is a trike plane. I gots some mods to do. 










The main landing gear which is not stock also. 3 1/2" wheels.










The servos which I buy in bulk.










The engine and the rest should be here on Monday.


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## Gary

Got the dual aileron set up engineered. And as the glue is drying on the wing halves and so forth, Ill be moving on to working on the fuselage. This will be the real challenge since I plan on taking a trike geared plane, with rubber banded wings, and no actual windows to a tail dragger, bolt down wing while trying to maintain structural integrity with the required material removal for the windows while increasing the strength that the fore section needs for a bolt down wing. I need to get on this quickly because I don't know if I have the proper material/bracing that Ill need, so I may have to order stuff asap. I have a feeling that Ill be covering the wing before I finish framing up the fuse.


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## poncho n' lefty

looks nice


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## Gary

In order to use a "Pull-Pull" cable system for the tail dragger design, I will be flipping the top rear section of the fuse so that the push rod exit for the rudder will now be on the starboard side instead of the port side. (Just like the LT25). This should be the easiest way to keep the rudder and the tail wheel going in the same direction. (Yes, I messed that up before).

The tiller will be designed as I go and as much as I would prefer to use the shortest cables possible, it will be much easier to work through the open section of the main area and also keeping the weight of the tiller as far forward as possible. The problem is fishing those cables through the fuse. I may add some outer housings for the cables.


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## Gary

On the main landing gear, I will be laminating at least two layers of ply backed with tristock just behind F2 and to counteract the forces in front of F2, at least one layer of ply backed with 3/4" tristock.


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## goodwood

gawd that looks like a lot of work. good luck and I hope you're having fun.


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## Gary

goodwood said:


> gawd that looks like a lot of work. good luck and I hope you're having fun.


Thanks, and yes, I'm having a blast! Took this whole week off.


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## Ronborsk

Great job on measuring/cutting/fitting. Looking great.


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## Gary

Ronborsk said:


> Great job on measuring/cutting/fitting. Looking great.


Thanks Ron. I was going to start on the fuse this morning, but right off the bat it calls for mounting the motor and that Saito 56 will be later today. :dance:

So I moved on to the stabilizer. Pics to follow.


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## devil1824

That's a lot of work. Looks like fun though.


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## Gary

devil1824 said:


> That's a lot of work. Looks like fun though.


Much lighter than a 52 Chevrolet. :work:

It is a lot of work and is a challenge, just like your restore of the truck. Work, yes, but a labor of love. Here I have to use wood working skills, mechanical skills, electronic skills with a tad of art, which being artistic is NOT one of my strengths. And in the end, I fly it!

I could buy a plane already built, but the satisfaction of taking 17 pounds of wood sticks and turn it into a one of a kind flying machine is hard to describe. I think you understand. :brew:


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## devil1824

Gary said:


> Much lighter than a 52 Chevrolet. :work:
> 
> It is a lot of work and is a challenge, just like your restore of the truck. Work, yes, but a labor of love. Here I have to use wood working skills, mechanical skills, electronic skills with a tad of art, which being artistic is NOT one of my strengths. And in the end, I fly it!
> 
> I could buy a plane already built, but the satisfaction of taking 17 pounds of wood sticks and turn it into a one of a kind flying machine is hard to describe. I think you understand. :brew:


Completely understand. That's why I make my own beer ,make my own fishing rods,tie my own flies and of course build my own truck. :brew:


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## Gary

My engine just showed up and being a piston head, you might appreciate this. It's a Japanese made 4 stroke push rod motor with a displacement of 0.56 cubic inch. It runs on Methanol with anywhere from 0 to 30% Nitro. With 15% nitro that I normally use, it will put out 0.9 horse power at over 10,000 RPM.

I LOVE nitro! :mpd:


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## Gary

Moving forward, I got the wing halves joined and ended up with a 1 1/4" of dihedral. Also framed up the tail feathers. And I'm tired.


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## Gary

I need some building music here at 6:00 am. :rybka:


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## devil1824

Love the engine. .9 horsepower doesn't sound like much until I started thinking about go-carts can move pretty fast with 3horsepower engine. I've never run nitro, but we used methanol for 6yrs. Looking good.


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## Gary

devil1824 said:


> Love the engine. .9 horsepower doesn't sound like much until I started thinking about go-carts can move pretty fast with 3horsepower engine. I've never run nitro, but we used methanol for 6yrs. Looking good.


Thanks and think about it. A kart weighs what? 120 pounds? Add the weight of the diver and your looking at close to 250-300 pounds. This plane will weigh 6 pounds swinging a 12" prop. The power to weight ratio is pretty high.


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## Ronborsk

That music hit the spot. 

Dang, I'll be listening to Zepparella all morning here at work.


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## bassguitarman

I always wished that I had the patience to build like that


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## Gary

Moving on to building the fuse, I wanted to get the throttle linkage set up out of the way. So I built up a bellcrank design and no, that is NOT a popsickle stick.







It sure looks like one, but it's fiberglass. I wanted some electrical insulation from the engine to the throttle servo. I have had "Glitch" problems before when I had no insulation between the two.


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## Gary

bassguitarman said:


> I always wished that I had the patience to build like that


It's not that bad. And it beats watching TV! :rybka:

Ron, I thought you would like Zepparella.


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## atcNick

The lt40 was my first plane, still have it 15 years later. Looks like they changed the placement of the aileron servos.


-Nick


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## Gary

That's a mod I made Nick. I sort of don't like the single servo set up. If you get just a little bit of glue in the wire causing some friction, that puts a lot of load on the servo and RX battery. With the dual servo set up, the servos last much longer, uses less power and due to where the aileron control horns/control rods are placed, there is much less chance of flutter.


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## Gary

I moved back to the wing for the bolt down wing mod instead of using rubber bands.

And it's not pretty.







If you expect perfection here, you have a lot more time than I do. Besides. once I'm done sheeting and covering, you couldn't see it from Montana.

First I found some stuff, sort of ground a V groove in it to fit close to the leading edge, epoxied them in, drill a 1/4" hole all the way to the dihedral braces, sharpened some points on 1/4" oak dowel, and just glued them in. The reason for the sharpened points is an easy way to mark where they will go through up front. It's really easy.


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## Gary

Moving forward on the wing.


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## Gary

A little more filler.


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## Gary

Moving back to the fuselage and the challenge of taking a plane that has no see through windows, to one that does, I think I have it figured out. But at this point, I have no other choice since I just cut big holes out of the sides.

:help:


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## Gary

Stay tuned. This is getting weird. :walkingsm


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## Gary

Looking more like a plane. :dance:


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## devil1824

Cool. looking good. Since I know nothing about planes this may sound dumb to you, but those tires remind me of the Alaskan bush planes.


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## Gary

devil1824 said:


> Cool. looking good. Since I know nothing about planes this may sound dumb to you, but those tires remind me of the Alaskan bush planes.


Exactly the look I was going for. I needed to raise the front end for more prop clearance since I will be running a 4-stroke. 4-strokes have more torque and you use a larger diameter prop with less pitch than you would a 2-stroke.


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## Gary

Got a little more done. While I was taking a break I bent up the vent tube for the tank.










It might be overkill, but since this is a semi bashed build that includes a bolt down wing and windows, I am beefing up the areas around where I removed material and even beefed up the underside of the tank floor. The bad part of my front windshield design is that I won't be able to glue the framing in until after I cover that front part. I see no way to glue the windshield in going through the wing bay and I want to make sure I get the covering around the edges through the cut out and doing so with the windshield installed would be near impossible, at least for me.










This is the tank floor installed and I am staining as much as I can inside since we will be able to see through the windows to the guts. And yes the tank will stand out, but I may add a cockpit floor, I'm just not there yet.










The wing bolted down and then some filler to smooth the rough edge of the ply thing.


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## physhstyx

Very nice Gary. I am getting itchy thumbs as the flying season approaches. It is nice to see someone still building kits thse days. I have a brand new in the box Ace whiz 40. Beautiful airplane when in tail dragger configuration. I hope to start on this build soon. I learned to fly on this aircraft and found one stil in the box on Ebay. Picture is one from online. I also have up sized the plans for a later scratch build. Hope to see you at the swap meet.

Larry


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## physhstyx

*pics of Whiz*

Pictures of a whiz ( not mine). Look at the round tail. very vintage looking.


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## Gary

Thanks Larry. Good to hear from you again.


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## Gary

The problems using a 4-Stroke is always how to run the throttle cable. Got that worked out.


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## Gary

The side windows look a little funny but if I raised them any more, I would have had to do alot more engineering. I can live with it.


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## Gary

Bouncing around I started doing some covering tonight. Olive drab Solartex.

This stuff is great!


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## Gary

Working on covering the wing now.


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## Gary

Wing covered. It only took 7 hours. lol


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## Ronborsk

It looks like your time was well spent. Looking good. I especially like your iron stand. Much better than what comes with the iron.


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## Gary

I had to drain that stand though. :rotfl:


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## Gary

Using the wet sponge method for filling the low spots on the fuse.


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## Gary

A little sanding on the fuselage but I wont be doing the final sanding until after I mock up the servos etc in case I give it hanger rash during handling. 

Being I forgot to order some Y-connectors until last night, I'm moving away from the fuse to do some more covering. The vertical stab and rudder are final sanded, hinged and ready for covering.


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## Gary

I'm digging this Solartex covering and the olive drab is growing on me.


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## devil1824

Looking good! Olive drab, or as I call it, O.D. green Is pretty sexy on anything. I've even seen a ferrari painted OD. Also came close to being the color on my 52' with a white star on the door. Keep up the good work.


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## Gary

White contrast. Not the first time I heard that.


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## Gary

Taking a trike plane set up and modding it to a tail dragger cab be a pain in Brownsville. :rotfl:

I did the right thing by flipping over the rear upper fuse plate thus having the rudder pushrod exit through the right side and not the left. And yes, I learned from a mistake. My last try on a tail dragger mod had the rudder and tail wheel going in opposite directions.









I mocked up the tail wheel using fishing line temporarily and will be using fishing leader for the permanent control. I think after mounting the servo tray, mounting the servos, gluing in the outer push rod tubes, double and triple checking everything, the fuse will be ready for final sanding and covering.

Pheww! I'm so glad I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.


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## Gary

Hopefully tomorrow Ill be able to start covering the fuselage.


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## Gary

Got the fuselage covered and the windows installed.


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## Law Dog

Looks great, wished I had the time to build one! Thanks for sharing, keep posting progress....


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## Gary

Thank you!


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## Gary

30 minute epoxy on the V-Stab. I messed up a little bit on cutting away the Solartex, but I'm sure I can fix that.


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## Gary

Got the rudder and elevator hinged in and glued in today and have the rudder control horn, pushrod and servo working. I still need more outer tube bracing near the servo, but Ill tackle that when I get to the elevator linkage.


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## Chase4556

Are you are referring to the little area at the base of the vertical stab as to where you got a little carried away with the cutting? Patching that up can be a pain, one thing I have done in the past, and you can give a try, it to get OD green model paint. On a small inconspicuous area like that, it will probably blend in better than trying to fix it up with more covering. Just try the paint on a scrap piece first to see how well it blends.

Thanks for the build up threads. I miss being full blown into flying. No area in the barracks to build or have a hanger full of planes. All I have now is my Trex 450 clone and a little Flyzone Millennium master. Keep up the good work!


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## yellowskeeter

Won't be long now!


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## Gary

Chase4556 said:


> Are you are referring to the little area at the base of the vertical stab as to where you got a little carried away with the cutting? Patching that up can be a pain, one thing I have done in the past, and you can give a try, it to get OD green model paint. On a small inconspicuous area like that, it will probably blend in better than trying to fix it up with more covering. Just try the paint on a scrap piece first to see how well it blends.
> 
> Thanks for the build up threads. I miss being full blown into flying. No area in the barracks to build or have a hanger full of planes. All I have now is my Trex 450 clone and a little Flyzone Millennium master. Keep up the good work!


The problem with that is methanol and nitro. It takes a special paint that will hold up to fuel. And your right about trying to fix it with more covering. I'm new to Solartex, tried it, didn't like it and there is no going back now. Oh well. I see an opportunity for another "Trim" option. But whatever. It's just a trainer/basher. It's going to get beat up.


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## Gary

yellowskeeter said:


> Won't be long now!


I'm waiting on the brown truck guy, but I only have about 6 hours of labor left. I should be breaking in the Saito within 2 weeks.


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## Gary

Getting down to the nuts and bolts. Near done!


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## Gary

After a week of being sick, I finally got back on the build. I got the throttle cable routing and the fuel tank installed semi-permanently. Got the hatch installed and I am digging the look of all those mounting screws with the hatch. The contrast against the olive drab and the added shiny up front matching the chrome on the Saito looks cool I think. And has that Mel Gibson, Mad Max look!


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## Gary

I hope to be done tomorrow but I'm digging the look.


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## flynut

whens the maiden flight?:bounce:


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## Gary

flynut said:


> whens the maiden flight?:bounce:


I still have to break in the motor, proly in two weeks if this wind dies down. Hopefully next weekend Ill get the motor broken in and do a little taxi-ing. I haven't flown in a couple of years so I'm in no hurry. I hate to bust this one up.

:goldfish:


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## A6TEXAN

use a colored marker to cover the small area. prob can get olive color at Micheals. :smile:


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