Those of us that have been in the club for a while will remember Charlie Neville's beautiful SIG Kadet Senior ARF that he brought to Winter Projects Night several years ago. Well, after some good-natured "encouragement" from members, Charlie finally decided to give his hangar queen a chance to show off in early November.
But first...a little history.
Upon opening the box, Charlie discovered that both wing halves were damaged. The dealer replaced both, but Charlie then found one of the replacement wings damaged as well, requiring another trip to the hobby shop. "I now have one and one half spare wings," Charlie notes. "And all three pieces are repairable."
"I bought the plane from the former Ultimate R/C Warehouse in Franklin for about $180," Charlie explained. "This is a probably a factor as to why they went under!"
Charlie reports that the covering had about two hours worth of wrinkles that needed to be ironed out. He replaced the supplied aluminum landing gear with a fiberglass set. He also installed a more durable double-strut nose gear to replace the stock single-strut unit. Although SIG recommends a .46 2-stroke or .60 four-stroke, Charlie decided to go the conservative route with a OS .91FX strapped into the front!
The plane was test-flown by Bill Lloyd in early November. He felt comfortable doing loops, rolls and some inverted flight on the first outing. After setting the trims, Charlie took the sticks for a few minutes. "It's extremely gentle and flew very well at less than half-throttle," he explained. "The 80" wingspan and the contrast in color of the top and bottom of the wing make the plane very easy to see."
According to Charlie, the SIG web site claims "A fully illustrated, comprehensive assembly manual takes you from box to field in a few, short hours." "No, I am not Dave Seale," Charlie said with a smile. "But, I did keep track of the time it took to assemble this plane...51 hours...and I think that this is very conservative."
Regardless of the bumps along the way, Charlie seems to have a real nice plane to add to his stable of flyers. Enjoy!
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