Sig Kadet Mk. I

A member of our flying group back in the 1980's built a Kadet Junior as his first 'real' airplane. Mark had showed up one Sunday afternoon, peddling his bike out to the airport, and a week later, returned with a VERY used and VERY warped Kraft Cardinal plastic-fuse/foam wing affair. We got it going and into the air, but it had been repaired with epoxy so many times and was SO heavy, it's glide made the Space Shuttle look like a sailplane.

Mark got to where he could sort of steer it around, but the thing had to be landed with a good amount of power, and every turn-to-final resulted in a spiral into the beans...and even more epoxy.

After really learning to fly with a used Cox Sportavia, he bought the Kadet Junior kit and, following the instructions VERY tightly, built one of the best looking first-time projects I'd ever seen. It was painted bright orange, and I think he had an O.S. .20-something in it (seems like we ALL had switched to O.S. back then). I got a photo of it somewhere, but haven't come across it in my continued scanning project.

Like several in our group who kept planes long-term, the Junior became his signature airplane. He set about teaching himself to fly an actual pattern and nail his landings, like I kept carping about back then. I once heard a member of the club over here in Cape complain about going out to the airport at Cairo, and having to wait to test a new plane because of 'this kid that kept doing touch-and-goes all afternoon'.

The Junior WAS a bit quicker than than it's big brothers, but was packing a used, heavy flight pack, and with the much lighter gear we're running with these days, I'm betting that the weight could be knocked down a bunch, and allow it to drift in for a super-slow landing like the MK I. I can't remember for sure if Mark added strip ailerons or not, but believe he DID replace the stamped aluminum main gear with piano wire at some point.

He flew the Kadet Junior 'till it was a ragged, fuel-soaked vagabond that often lost belly sheeting or strips of monokote in-flight. It finally met it's end in an ill-planned Split-S that ran a bit short on altitude.

Last I heard, Mark was flying the Big Dogs for Fed-Ex or UPS.

Sorry for the story...just touched a nostalgic nerve I guess. I'll post some photos if I can find them.

I also had a Kadet Jr., it was ok, it didn't "float' as well as the Mk. I, but had a lot of fun with it...untill a "watch this" moment, when for some stupid reason (maybe to see what would happen) i got her up to 400'+ and put it into a straight dive, throttle wide open, its amazing how fast it quickly became and how quick the ground came up, as soon as i touched the elevator the wing sheared off and it planted in the soft dirt, splat! The Enya .29 lived to fly again and i still have tail feathers of the Kadet Jr.