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Ok I have to admit. I love this plane. Sure at first I was hesitant. Every one at the club field had one, and I
didn't want one just cause every else had one. Then there was the foam wings which even at my tender
R/C age of 2 ( been in the hobby for about 2 years ) I hated. Well my wife got me the kit for my birthday
as recommended by one of my flying buddies. To cut to the chase, building the plane was a whole lot
easier than I thought it would be, and there sure is a reason why everyone else at the field had one; they
just plain great flying planes.
The kit was a bit different from what I was used to. No plans as the wings are foam, and the fuse is built from a pull out in the instruction book. The instruction book is typical Sig. A little dated, but they are full of good information that works very well. Some say they are too old. Sure they were written way back when balsa was first invented, but I see no reason to change them as they aren't broke, so to speak. A lot of the newer kits don't even have instructions this good. Using the "handy printed" fuselage sides I rough cut out the sides. Yes there are those who complain about the "handy printed" parts, saying there is nothing handy about them. I personally like them. First you are the one cutting out the parts. If cut a little big, just sand to the right size. Perfect fit, every time. I have built some "computer generated" die cut kits that the parts fit was very poor at best. Anyway once the parts are cut out it is a simple matter of making a box with the supplied wood. The formers and such are either machine cut or die cut. All parts were of excellent quality in both wood selection & cut. Just follow those darned instructions and there should be no problems. I forget if they suggested hollowing out the chin block or not, but I did. This was my first, and so far only, foam wing and it was a whole lot easier than I imagined. It is fully sheeted with a balsa LE and TE. I followed the directions for making my balsa sheet. I used yellow glue for this process, as I wanted something easy to sand. To stick the wood to the cores I used Dave Brown Surgum. I added about 2 -3 drops of red food coloring to make the white glue easy to see on the white foam cores. The plane was built spring of 93 & still going strong with no joint failures, or lifting, as I have seen on other foam wings. Not sure if it was material or technique, but I can say this way works if done as outlined in the instruction. After the wing is sheeted, trim and apply the LE & TE. I used yellow glue. Now for the wing tip blocks. I have seen a whole lot of variations on this and none seemed to effect the flying. I did what was out lined in the instructions. If I had to do over again I would do the same. To me they look the best. I have seen the blocks left flat on the ends, but carved to airfoil shape, I've seen the blocks left off & a sheet of 1/8 as a cap. Then again you can add splates. So far I've seen about 3 or 4 variations on this. Joining the wing was uneventful. They only give you one inch cloth. I used it and have subjected mine to very sever loads ( see below ) with no problems to date. But use it as a friend of mine bought a built Kougar. The previous owner flew it around in sloppy circles and had no problems. The first time my buddy did a snap, the plane literally blew apart. Looked like some one set a bomb off inside. What had happened, the builder didn't install the glass cloth & the joint failed big time. A few guys have used the supplied tape, but added 2oz cloth past the fuse. Take your pick, but do add the cloth. Another modification I made was I lengthened the LE dowel set up. I don't know why, but they only give you these little stubs of a dowel. I just can't see them staying in the wing. The LE has all the forces applied to it. I used dowels that went almost to the center of the wing. After years of abuse they are starting to get loose & I've had to dig a little foam and reinforce. As of 10/30/98 I have had to replace the dowels as they were getting really compressed and loose. Ok what to say except for cutting out the sheets. Yes more of the handy printed parts, but I personally like them. Just cut, glue, sand & hinge. Once again there are some variations here too. I rounded my leading edges, and have had great results. I've seen sharp leading edges and they too flew fine. Some may say the balsa is a bit hard, but one thing I might add is that about two years ago a new flier at the field ran into the tail of my Kougar with his running engine. The prop tore through the tail. Well I replaced the fin & rudder with some softer ¼" balsa. Well a loose fitting Z bend that led to flutter in a high-speed dive promptly tore the rudder off. Luckily the plan handled fine as long as the speed was kept up and an uneventful landing reviled that the wood joint broke right at the joint at the fillets. This fix I used harder ¼" balsa like that supplied in the kit. And while I was at it I revised the sloppy Z bend to a nice tight U bend.. The radio is easy to install. Just follow the supplied directions. They do show older liner servos, but the pictures work just as well with Futaba S148s. I do use ball bearing conversion for the rudder, aileron, and elevator, and after all this time there has been almost no slop. Ok here is the fun part. There have been 4 engines in this plane so far. I think this last one is here to stay. It started off with an ASP .46 At first this appeared to be a great engine. Well about 2 Months into it's life mine developed the dreaded bad rod problem so common with the ASP .46 I found about this after I bought mine. These engines were dropping rods like crazy, and Indy RC did nothing to support it, even if they were under warranty. On to a Royal .46 Nothing but problems with this engine. It went back to Colorado at least 4 times. There were known problems with the sleeve, liner, etc. Finally ended up with the carb. from the above ASP on the engine. With this set up the Royal was never a power house, but now it ran consistently. While this engine was on it's many trips to Colorado, I used a buddies Fox .40 BB engine with outstanding results. This engine was a big improvement of the ASP .46 and even a greater improvement over the Royal .46 I then got a Fox .46 and this engine has been in there ever since as it is, as expected, even better that the Fox .40 I know the temptation is there to go bigger and theoretically better engine. Well don't! Trust me, I have seen quiet a few .60s on Kougars and there is no advantage over a good .46. There is the disadvantage of extra weight, and fuel demands. My buddy had a OS .61 on his, and my Fox .45 kept up with in level flight. He lost me in vertical maneuvers, but my snaps were tighter, so... |
