I'm well into contstruction of a Sig Kougar, to the point of cutting the aileron servo into the wing. My radio is a Futaba 7C, which is capable of flaperon mixing. Before I start cutting, how much benefit would flaperons offer over simple ailerons on a Kougar?
Regards, Ken
Ken, I am covering #21 and I have similar capability with my radio (RD6000) but know it is not worth the effort or servo. Standard operations allow that plane to be landed at a walk, or do full throttle touch and goes. BTW, that is NOT a manuever for the faint of heart!
If you do not add to the vertical fin, there WILL be some 'Dutch Roll' in straight and level flight. Not that I ever do very much of that. MOST of my birds have met their demise from altitudes of less than 10 feet.
Add them if you like, but I'm not certain how much you'll gain. I have had the smaller version of the Kougar ( i.e Sig Kobra) since they first came out in the late 1970's and have flown a number of Kougars. Both have great low speed handling built as stock, unless you really increase the weights with a doped/painted finish.
You'll be adding a couple of ounces for the extra servo, linkage and mounts as well as the extra cost for the servo.
You'll gain control redundancy with the extra aileron servo, which adds a little piece of mind and a new capability to play with.
I have a GP Extra 300 ARF w/ Saito 91 which weighs 7lbs. This plane has about the same wing area as a Kougar, but a well built Kougar should come out at least 1 lbs lighter. This kit comes set up for the extra servo, so I programmed in flaperons. It doesn't really slow the plane down very much, but it did make it feel a little more "solid" when landing.
Mark D. Fain
Does this also apply to the King Kobra?
--- Rich
When I built my Kougar, I screwed up and only built half the dihedral into the wing. It STILL lands at a walk and flied like its on rails!
Don't think flaperons are really needed.
Just my opinion....
You'd love it, not not for the reason of "flaperons". The Kougar is not a hot ship, so what you WOULD have some fun with is "spoilerons" (mechanical setup in the aircraft is the same as flaperons... just the radio mixing is different) which allow you to dial in UP in both ailerons and at the same time, mix in some up elevator. That would give you some real fun with short field landings but be careful not to dial in so much that you don't have enough additional elevator left to properly flair at touchdown.
MJC
Mine usually quit at about 0, give or take a divot.
Don't really know about the King Kobra, but suspect the same results. Whatever you do, be sure you don't build a lead sled. I am running a Saito .56 on a metal mount with extended (added one inch to height to clear 12 inch prop) landing gear and 1200 mAh RX pack and my Kougars come in less than 5 3/4 pounds all up. SAND PAPER WORKS WONDERS! LOL I suspect that the King and the Kobra are similar. Actually my OFB has a Kobra and it is almost the same except it has a built up wing.
John, I said the altitude they began at during the final flight since most of them left divots.
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