Re: Please help me understand the economy of..........

Ken Cook Sun Jul 15, 2012 1:22 pm

Kim, back in March we had a job close by the factory. I passed by on route to another job. Certainly though the building was not like it was back when it was in operation. The building sustained fire damage in the 80's which pretty much was the demise of the operation. I will certainly try and get a pic of the shop. My first (big) plane was a Sterling Yak-9. Ken

Kim Sun Jul 15, 2012 1:30 pm

shawn cook wrote: Kim, back in March we had a job close by the factory. I passed by on route to another job. Certainly though the building was not like it was back when it was in operation. The building sustained fire damage in the 80's which pretty much was the demise of the operation. I will certainly try and get a pic of the shop. My first (big) plane was a Sterling Yak-9. Ken

The first BIG one I owned was also a Sterling Kit...this Flying Fool. My Uncle Wayne built it for me...it was shortly taken out by a stumbling little brother !!! I've got a kit stuck back, but don't know if I'll ever build it!

Please help me understand the economy of.......... - Page 2 2_105

Please help me understand the economy of.......... - Page 2 2_105

gcb Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:05 am

The Scout is an excellent little ship. Mine has a OK Cub .049B on it. I too got plans from Joe Wagner. They are excellent plans and I highly recommend them. Joe includes notes on them that makes them interesting to read as well as build from. Joe includes the prototype airfoil as well as the production one. Not sure if Joe or his son are making the plans currently. Joe had some health problems.

Joe was hired by Gil Henry, owner of VECO, to redesign ships that already existed but eliminate the "polywog" airfoil being used at the time. Sometime after Joe left, those models, plus the ones Joe designed from scratch went through another change in the early/mid fifties.

Sterling as well as most other kit manufacturers at the time were in tight competition with each other, AND often good balsa was not available. Between poor balsa and running too many kits before sharpening the dies, several manufacturers made some poor kits. I still believe Berkeley was the worst but Sterling was often a close second (IMHO). I once started a Sterling CL SE-5 but ended up giving it to a friend after I got the fuselage built. Don't think he ever finished it either.

Several kit manufacturers used isometric views or partial plans for assembling their kits. And yes, I still copy parts on back of those type plans in case I need a repair part.

OTOH Brodak and most custom kit makers usually supply new completely redrawn CAD plans.

Also, as someone mentioned, often kit manufacturers changed airplane designs to fit manufacturing processes. One example is the Top Flite version of the Flite Streak series vs the Brodak version. Brodak follows George Aldrich's original construction method.

Whew! Sorry, didn't mean to ramble on so much. :-)

George

pkrankow Sun Oct 21, 2012 11:23 pm

I would rather scratch build that work from poor quality die-cut. Printwood is a good compromise if the wood is good...Laser cutting is pretty neat, but brings bonding baggage with it, as I understand (I haven't built a laser kit yet, soon enough) The char from the laser cut needs sanded off or some glue won't even stick! (so I have read) I understand it is not a real big deal.

If you order materials in adequate quantity from a dealer such as BalsaUSA.com the material costs plummet. I ordered a whole box of material for the cost of the two pieces of 1/16 birch plywood I needed from the not-very-local hobby shop. The balsa I purchased is superior to what I can get at the local craft and hobby store. Yes, I did need to bulk up my order a bit because shipping is expensive, yet shipping more is not very expensive.

So now I need a set of plans for something bigger than what an .049 will fly. I am leaning towards a .25 but don't fear power (I fear expensive slightly though, not like this is a cheap hobby)

Phil

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