Sig Akromaster build.

Have a great maiden Jim.  
She looks beautiful.
Bob

Perhaps a bit chunky, but your powerplant of choice should have no prob hauling it around.

What did the instructions say on finished weight?

Hope to see a report soon.

Ron

Jim,

Did a quick search and I saw weight ranges all over the place from 17-23oz.

I think 24oz will be just fine and like I said that .15BB really hauls the mail.

Jim, I've learned with my uniflow tank to pinch off the feed line while pumping gas into the tank through the uni pressure tube. I've flooded mine even when pushing the syringe slowly with the top vent open. Check frequently for cracks in the silicon tubes where they plug onto the metal tank lines.
Rusty

RknRusty wrote:Jim, I've learned with my uniflow tank to pinch off the feed line while pumping gas into the tank through the uni pressure tube. I've flooded mine even when pushing the syringe slowly with the top vent open. Check frequently for cracks in the silicon tubes where they plug onto the metal tank lines.
Rusty

I disconnect the feed line, tip the nose down, and fill through the feed until fuel comes out the uniflow vent.

Jim

Flew nice and stable, definitely nose heavy. I think I will follow everyone's advice and lose the muffler.

Jim

Cool Jim!

Engine starting lugging a bit of the way into the flight. Was it too lean or was the tank causing issues?

It's always good to see your hard work come to fruition! Thanks for the video, very nice.

Ron

Looks like a well behaved plane. Not sure I'd like doing a maiden over pavement. Or any kind of sport flying where the crashes come more often than pattern flying. For me anyway. Thanks for posting the video.
Rusty

I've been following the thread Jim, thanks
for posting the video.
Congrats on the maiden.   
Bob

Cribbs74 wrote:Cool Jim!

Engine starting lugging a bit of the way into the flight. Was it too lean or was the tank causing issues?

It's always good to see your hard work come to fruition! Thanks for the video, very nice.

Ron

I think it was a touch lean and over proped. Backed the needle off for the second flight and it pulled nice all the way through. Prop is an APC 8x5, I will pick up an 8x4 and 8x3 Monday. And lose the muffler. And fly over grass.  

Jim

Jim, the Fox .15's really like to turn up. Your correct that they don't like to have too much prop. Try a 7x6, they like the little ones. Ken

JPvelo wrote:

Cribbs74 wrote:Cool Jim!

Engine starting lugging a bit of the way into the flight. Was it too lean or was the tank causing issues?

It's always good to see your hard work come to fruition! Thanks for the video, very nice.

Ron

I think it was a touch lean and over proped. Backed the needle off for the second flight and it pulled nice all the way through. Prop is an APC 8x5, I will pick up an 8x4 and 8x3 Monday. And lose the muffler. And fly over grass.  

Jim

Oh good! Glad it was an easy fix. It's also good you can laugh at the Yakking Clown. It was a really nice flying plane. Oh well they all have a time limit! Some earlier than others. Bravo on the excellent splat! It takes some gusto to snap a wing clean off.

Ron

Congrats! Glad to see this flew so well on its maiden. I've been watching this thread, to see what I can learn. Good to see the Akromaster flys great.

Speaking of which....

My son got a car stereo for his birthday, and he brought it over for me to install. Trying to find some speaker wire, I was digging around in the back of the hall closet and, wha?!?!?


I thought I scavenged this kit for the wood 25-30 years ago! I’ll inventory the kit and see if it’s all there, then put it into the rotation.
The  Mark

Mark, the nice thing is, not much to it and the plans are full size if I recall. Parts can be easily duped and the plane is a lot of fun as Jim demonstrated. I like the Fox .15's and I'm certainly glad Jim has done this plane using the modern version. I believe it was American Modeler or Flying Models that did a article when it was introduced using the Cox Medallion .15 as power. I remember the article but couldn't locate it. Ken

Cool Mark!

That is a nice surprise!

Well, the kit's pretty much complete.  The only things missing are a stick of 1/4 x 1/4 x 18" spruce, the canopy, the landing gear, and the accessory package. I can make my own landing gear.  I'll make a different canopy to change the looks of the plane.  I have plenty of 1/4 x 1/4 spruce from a 1/4 scale plane I crashed about 20 years ago.  And, If I want, SIG sells the accessory kit for $4.95.  But, I'll probably just make up the accessories from stuff I have on hand.  Most people who built these said a couple of the accessories need to be replaced with stouter components anyway.

Funny thing is, I have a LOT of wood in the box that didn't come from the kit.  Must be some stuff I wanted to save, so I just slipped it into the box.

Now to figure out where in the build queue to put ths thing.

Ken: I was planning on using a Medallion .15 for this. If that doesn't do it, I have a TD .15 that's been awaiting refurb that I can clean up and throw in it.

The Funny Mark

Had the Agromaster out today with no muffler, man what a difference. I actually added another washer to the tail for weight and it really livened up. There are some trim issues, insides are way bigger than outsides. After I get those the same size I may increase control throws, it seems nowhere near a stall in the turns so if I can tighten them up a bit I will. First order of  buisiness though is the tank. The motor stalled three times on me.   First during consecutive lazy eights, a hard landing bent the gear but nothing I couldn't straighten. The second time I was inverted and a little rich. I managed to execute what was probably the smoothest most graceful landing I've ever done, inverted into the grass with no damage. It flies beautifully inverted, nice and stable.  The third I leaned it out a little, was inverted and outside looped to normal flight but it died at the very tip top of the loop which was almost overhead because this thing outsides huge right now. Man, I thought that was the end of this plane but I backed up and kept the lines tight and pulled out to grease a perfect landing in the grass. I think the tank issue is a stuck clunk. The clunk line is a hair too long and the clunk gets wedged in the back corner of the tank. That's what I'll try first anyway. Switched over to the APC 7x6 Ken Cook suggested and as usual he was right. I launched at 15k and pulled through manuevers with ease as long as it drew fuel.

Will report on the tank next time I fly it,

Jim

Jim,

Which are larger insides or outsides? You mentioned both in your writeup.

That sucks about the tank issues. I don't run clunks, but many do and I probably will soon also. I am sure Ken has some tips and tricks on those. The only thing I can suggest is to make sure the clunk line is not too rigid and able to go from top to bottom easily.

Sounds like it will be a fantastic plane once trimmed and the bugs get worked out.

Ron

Oops, it's the outsides that are huge.

Jim

I assume the deflection is the same amount both ways?

Cribbs74 wrote:I assume the deflection is the same amount both ways?

Well now I just feel dumb. I eyeballed it and thought it was good but I just put the angle finder on it and it was 22* up and 17* down. I will increase  and equalise travel before it flys again.

Jim

No, that's a good thing. Now you know how to fix it.