| Day 1 |
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The box. Everything was neatly packed. But HOLY SHIT, look at all those parts. Somethin' Extra indeed :)
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The full scale CAD plans are fully detailed. They're huge, at least 3 cat lengths. You can clearly see the SIG logo
on the plans.
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The manual is 26 pages long and 95 steps of grueling hard work. At least this plane is manufactured in US so at least
it's written in english. However since this is a beginners's kit, the manual could use a little less technical references
and have descriptions in more layman terms. (What the hell is a spar?)
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The "spars" whatever the hell they are. The manual called for 4 26" dowels. The kit didn't come with any 26" dowels,
it did however come with 26.5" dowels.
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Wing ribs for the edges.
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Female "phenolic" tube. They could have used the word "cardboard" but noooo. Need wax paper bad, the caps for the ends
got stuck to the work-bench, had to pry it with a screwdriver.
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| Day 2 |
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Laying out the plans for the right wing. I bought a scrap sheet of drywall to use as workbench for easy pinning.
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The laminated spar pinned to the wax paper, plans, drywall.
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I've labeled the wing ribs with masking tape prior to removing them from the templates.
Gluing the ribs to the spar was pretty uneventful. Had to make sure it's perfectly aligned with the plans tho.
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The top spar trial-mounted. The leading and trailing edges trim glued in place.
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| Day 3 |
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Glued the top leading edge of balsa sheeting. Almost screwed up royal. I didn't realize that the sheeting is wider than
it should be, almost glued it in place.
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Started construction on the left wing. It was much easier the second time around.
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Sheeting the left wing's leading edge.
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| Day 4 |
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Covering the side panel with more balsa sheeting. And Oops! The right wing sheeting panel has been glued on the wrong side of the plane.
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Aileron control surfaces were few done in few minutes, unfortunately I'll have to do a lot of sanding.
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The stabilizer and elevator control surface prepped and glued. More sanding needed.
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Rudder control surface glued up. Even more sanding awaiting.
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| Day 5 |
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Balsa sheeting glued on top and bottom of the leading and trailing edges.
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The paper roll is used to guide the servo wire back to the fuselage.
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The end cap finally glued in place.
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The wing construction is complete. All that's left is smoothed it out with filler and sanding.
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Thought so far on the Sig Somethin' Extra
The Sig Somethin' Extra is definitely designed with beginners in mind. However there are some areas where
the descriptions are a little vague and leave you with some guesswork. I had a few oopsies so far including
gluing panel sheet on the wrong side of the plane, breaking some balsa wood. And the most irritating of them all
having the super glue seep through the wood and getting it stuck to the wax paper.
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| Day 6 |
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Fuselage construction begun. I've glued the fuselage doubler using 6 minute epoxy. From the plans sounds like
epoxy is used primarily during the fuselage construction.
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Setting up the firewall and engine mounts. You can see the comparison between the old engine mount from the
Ultra Stick and the new glass filled engine mounts that came with the Somethin' Extra kit.
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Some of the panels already glued to the side of the fuselage. One of the panels was made of thin balsa and I broke it
during the removal from it's sheet. I was able to quickly glued back to normal using CA (cyanoacrolyte) glue.
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| Day 7 |
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I've attached the other side of the fuselage. The fit wasn't perfect as the firewall has shifted a few seconds during
epoxy curing. It wasn't that big of a deal, a little bit of pressure evened it out.
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The firewall has been re-inforced with triangle stock. I've carved the stick to easily accept the blind nuts.
Also the canopy mount and gear mount epoxied on. Also re-inforced the gear mount with more triangle stock.
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The fuel tank bay floor glued in place. I have a 12oz fuel tank that barely fits, the design calls
for an 8oz fuel tank. I was planning to use the 12oz due to the much long flight time but I also
wanted to add an access hatch to the fuel tank area. The Somethin Extra manual mentioned that it
is not recommended to do that. I might end up buying an 8oz tank after-all.
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Trial fitting the wings onto the fuselage to properly align the female tube.
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The tail formers glued in place. These have drilled holes for pushrod guides. The plans were
somewhat unclear which way exactly these should point. I hope I guessed right.
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The fuselage "floor" glued in place. I've started using CA again as these are not prone to stress as the servo tray or firewall.
You can also see the antenna guide run along the fuselage. It's a great idea as it eliminates the ugly
string hanging from the plane.
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The rudder and elevator pushrod guides installed. The plastic guides are much thicker than the antenna guide
and was much harder to cut so that it's flush with the fuselage tail.
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Fuel tank area floor covered. There's going to be a lot of sanding as the panels did not match perfectly and are not flush.
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The tail rear top panel glued in place. This gave the fuselage much needed rigidity. It's now much safer to work
on the plane without the worry of cracking it.
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Throttle pushrod guide installed. I had to drill a hole in the firewall and one of the supports to accept
the plastic rod. Also had to re-drill the guide hole in the first former as some of the epoxy seeped in and
sealed it shut.
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Two elevator halves joined in with a steel rod. This was a very hairy experience as it required drilling
along side of the edge about 1" deep. I wasn't able to tell if I was drilling perfectly straight and nearly
drilled out of the side. Luckily epoxy was able to harden the join. Hopefully it'll last.
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I've used construction pins to align canopy mounting rails so that they stick out 1/16" above the fuselage.
It took me two tries to get it aligned properly so that when I glue the canopy floor it won't stick to the fuselage
side.
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| Day 8 |
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Glued the canopy former and the two rear formers to accept the shaping dowels. The angle of the canopy former
was set easily as Sig provided a laser cut alignment tool.
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The stringers glued in place. I wasn't too worried about the stringers sticking out past the edge of the leading
and trailing formers. I had my trusty Dremel to sand it down.
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The canopy hatch with the alignment/locking dowel installed. The manual suggests to cover/paint the hatch as it'll
be the only part of the plane that will not be covered by Monokote. I've used strips of wax
paper to make sure the canopy hatch does not get glued accidentally to the fuselage.
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Way back in the design I skipped a few steps dealing with making hinge slots. I didn't have a hinge slotting
tools and didn't want to use the hobby knife for it. I got a set of slotting tools and was able to
create the hinge slots very quickly. Still a nerve wrecking experience as the ailerons are still very fragile.
I've also used fiberglass tape to re-inforce the areas where the control horns will sit.
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| Day 9 |
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Major screw-up here. When I glued the two elevators surfaces together via the rod. I never checked if they're
at perfect alignment until now. The elevator was seriously crooked. I had to re-do it all over again,
problem was that by now the epoxy has hardened. It took me a very long time of wiggling to get the rod out of the
elevator. It's still not perfect but much better than what it was.
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The tail wheel guide attached to the rudder and secured with fiberglass tape. I've sanded the trailing, leading and tip
edges on each control surface to round them.
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The canopy hatch formers glued in place, once again I've used a piece of wax paper to prevent the canopy
hatch from sticking to the fuselage. I've also had Talona paint the canopy hatch white, it looks so much
better.
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The canopy hatch almost done. The only thing left is the plastic bubble which is added in the later steps.
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This part is going to be very tricky. First I had to attach the flaring wedges "temporarily" to the
fuselage using "dots" of CA (superglue). How do you temporarily attach using superglue is beyond me.
Now I have to carve these wedges to match the flow and angle of the fuselage. Using a hobby knife no less.
This is not going to be easy....
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Thought so far on the Sig Somethin' Extra
Up to the last step. All construction was pretty much like LEGO. You take the laser cut pieces and sort of
put them together in the slot-A goes into slot-B fashion. Now we're getting into a lot more intimate construction
where it's much easier to screw-up.
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| Day 10 |
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I've begun construction of the tire hubs. For now I've simply used Thick CA to glue the two halves together.
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Talona had a suprise for me for while I was away, she carved and glued all the re-inforcment cut-outs for
the leading and trailing canopy stringers.
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The fuel tank is finally secured in place and the fuel tank cap glued in. This was a very tough decision to make.
The plans call for an 8oz tank to be used but I preferred to use a 12oz tank. Originally I was planning to
install a hatch but because of the sheer size of the tank there wouldn't been enough room to install any hardpoints
for it. I've also installed the engine mounts and drilled the proper holes to accept the engine.
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The plane once again re-assembled for final gluing process. The stab and fin had to be glued in direct alignment
to the wings. After all the screwups I couldn't believe how close the measurements were.
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I've had to do some minor cut-outs in the fin to accept the wire of the elevators. I've also had to cut out
the engine area to accept the muffler on one side and the high-speed needle on the other.
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Light wood filler was used to fill any gaps between the carved fairing blocks and the last former. The plane
has been sanded using 220 grain sandpaper and now the balsa feels like a baby's bottom. Sanding the filler
out is the final sanding that has to be done to the plane. Next stop, covering....
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| Covering |
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Talona did an amazing job convering the plane. The design is better than anything I could come up with. The covering
is not perfect put pretty damn close to what I wanted. "Gravity Sucks" might just fly!
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Once again a beatufily arwork on the wings design. Love than Canadian flag on top of the little maple leaf
on the bottom. Way to go Talona!!
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| Day 11 |
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I've begin adding hinges and control surfaces to the tail section. This was pretty tricky because the UltraKote
covered all hinge slots and I had to measure out on the plans the distance and then guestimate with the
hobby knife. Wasn't too bad tho, I only missed once and only because I cut in too high. Due
to my last screw-up there is a considerable gap between the stab and the elevator. It's not a
big problem tho because I can simply cover the gap using self-adhesive covering.
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Attaching the ailerons to the wings was a snap because I simply laid the wing on top of the plans
and cut in to the hinge slots.
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| Day 12 |
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Preparing the support rods was pretty painless. Had to use a soldering iron to attach the links to the rods.
Also used a dremel cut-off wheel to cut the solder links in half.
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The support rods screwed in place. The bottom screw was a real pain to screw in because of the tiny slot in the
screw itself. I used red loctite to secure all nuts to the bolts.
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| Day 13 |
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The rudder now installed, I've tried installing the tail wheel but I found that I needed a way to somehow
secur the tail wheel to the tail wire. Will have to visit hobby shop again....
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I've used 30 minute epoxy to fuel-proof the entire engine area. Mmmmm...shiny. I've inserted the screws
for the time of the curing so that any epoxy in the threads would be easy to remove.
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The gear installation was quick and painless, I've used more red loctite to secure the screws.
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I've reinstalled the engine mounts and the engine. Boy what a pain that was. It took me 3 separate tries to get it
installed properly. The first time I didn't notice that the high speed needle was too tight against the wall, had
to remove the engine and sand it down a bit.
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Instead of using the 600mAh battery that came with my old radio, I've decided to build my own. It's much cheaper
and produces far more output. I've purchased 4 Sanyo Nickel Metal Hydride batteries rated at 2100mAh each. I've
used a high grit sandpaper to sand each end rough so that the solder will stick better to it. Using short
wire I soldered each battery in series and then encased the entire unit with heat-shrink package. Quick
burst of the heat-gun and the battery looks just like the JR battery for just a fraction of the cost.
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Begun the final pushrod construction, I'm a little worried that the nylon tubing may not been good
enough to act as pushrods, but I figure the folks at Sig know what they're doing.
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Thought so far on the Sig Somethin' Extra
The Somethin Extra is now at a stage of a typical ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) kit. Installing the radio, servos
and control horns is all that is left. I should be finished with this project in no time.
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| Day 14 |
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The day has begun with a major screwup. When I plugged in the soldering iron I didn't notice that the push rods
were actually resting on it. I effectively melted the pushrods rendering them useless. I quickly headed to
the hobby store to get a replacement pair. Turns out that even they the thickness looked identical
the new pushrods were too thick to fit into the slots. I decided to try to repair the melted
pushrods using pieces of threaded metal rods. While it worked great, it wasn't till I installed them
that I realized that luckily the melted point is beyond the final cut-off point and all this hassle was for nothing.
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I've soldered a pair of washers to the tail wire instead of using a wheel collar which wouldn't fit anyways.
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Servo installation was really easy, so were the control horns, well except the last one where one of the screws
ended up going in at an angle, I had a helluva time getting it back on track.
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Aileron pushrods were a snap to install, I've used cut pieces of fuel tubing as safties to keep the
clevises from separating during flight.
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Throttle pushrod, or pushwire installation was a complete joke. Sig decided to ship a braided
steel wire to be used as a throttle pushrod. Once installed the wire kept bending everytime the
servo arm moved. I've decided to scrap it and used the throttle pushrod salavaged from the Ultra Stick.
A world of difference, I didn't even have to cut the new pushrod to size.
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Throttle pushrod, or pushwire installation was a complete joke. Sig decided to ship a braided
steel wire to be used as a throttle pushrod. Once installed the wire kept bending everytime the
servo arm moved. I've decided to scrap it and used the throttle pushrod salavaged from the Ultra Stick.
A world of difference, I didn't even have to cut the new pushrod to size.
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I've installed a small white spinner, I'm not a really big fan of them as they're a pain in the ass when you try
to start the engine, but they do make the plane look nicer and they do improve aerodynamics. However
when I finally balanced the plane I noticed that it's way too tail heavy. I tried moving the battery
more forward but there was not much I could have done in that department, so I've fished out
an old brass spinner that came with the engine I used for my trainer (now sold). It balanced the plane
perfectly.
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As a final measure, I've cut strips of self adhesive covering material to cover the huge hinge gaps in the
elevator section.
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The plane is finished! It took almost a month and a half of actual time from beginning to end but It's finally done.
Although it was an interesting experience I don't think I will build another kit until at least I get my own house
with my own workshop. You really need a good working area with good lighting to work on such a project.
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First Flight of the Sig Somethin' Extra
The first take off was really hairy, I nearly crashed because I was so nervous about the first flight I
forgot to put my shades on, I flew right into the sun and completely lost the orientation of the plane,
the plane dived to about 2-4 feet above the ground before it finally recovered. My knees were shaking during the first
two flights because I was so nervous about crashing it. I immediately landed and calmed my nerves before trying again.
During the second flight I finally adjusted the trims, It only needed slight right and down trim adjustments before
flying perfectly level. This plane is definitely an advanced fliers plane as it's incredibly twitchy,
It rolls and loops extremly fast and flies like there's no tommorow.
Now I know why they call these planes "lawn darts". I had to take 2 passes during landing because I kept
overshooting the field even at lowest thottle. Once I got accustomed to the flying I switched to high rates
on the controls. WOW! This plane sure is agile. After the flights there's a few more things I have to
do to the plane. Replace the crappy nylon pushrods with metal ones, increase the throw on the
up elevator and possibly put in a bigger prop for more torque and speed. I have a spare
11x8 propeller that I can use to replace the current 10x6. I'm not sure If I can handle the speed tho.
Maybe I'll just stick to the current prop until I get really comfortable with flying this wild beast.
I'll post some videos of this plane in action soon....
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I've upgraded the plane over the winter. I've bought a brand spanking new Saito 72 engine for this .40 size plane.
A wee bit overpowered but hey. It'll definitely have Go power.
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Installing the engine was a bit tricky. I didn't want to tear the plane appart because the throttle linkage
did not allign with the carb on the Saito. The .46 Evo engine's throttle was all the way on the edge where as in the
Saito it can be either on the opposite edge, or if I flip the carb it would end up in the middle of the rear. In either case, the
new throttle wire had to be bent in several directions just to reach it.
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A huge 13x8 prop replaced the old 10x6 from the .46. This will definitely give the plane the climb capability. I had to
do several plane modifications to add the clearance required for this prop. As even the old prop was green from the lawn mowing
during taxing. I had to install much larger wheels, lower the rear wheel, bend the main axle for more clearance. I'd still like a
bit more clearance, maybe another half inch, but not sure what else I can do. Due to the much larger main wheels, The CG of the plane
has changed, with the added weight of the engine, this plane has a lot of forward CG that will need to be corrected before it's
second "maiden" voygage. The engine also needs to be broken in properly before I'll go all out. Will keep posted.
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