Opinions on Sig Mfg. "Rascal"

This post is a solicitation for opinions/links/reviews/photos of the Sig Mfg. Co.'s "Rascal" plane. I'm a relative newbie who has semi-successfully flown an AeroBird Challenger for the past few months. I've also got an old GWS "PicoStick FD" ARF

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that I've got a few hours on (mostly crashing this one - it's now sitting in the basement with motor mount sheared clean off, thanks to a folding wing and subsequent nosedive into asphalt).

Anyway, I'm thinking of buying a Sig Mfg. Rascal (the one with the 49" wingspan) ARF, and was wondering if anyone cared to comment on its suitability for a fairly new R/C pilot. I am assuming that it would be compatible with the same servo/battery/radio setup I've got in my Pico. I'm also assuming that this ARF won't be too much more trouble to put together than the GWS. Am I right?

I love the looks of this plane, and have read some good things about its handling (not too twitchy, nice flight model). I know that straight out of the box it's not got ailerons - which is fine for me right now, but perhaps in the future I'd like to graduate to true 4-Ch flight - is it possible to modify this little Rascal to use airlerons?

Thanks in advance,

J
Reply to
James Calivar
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On 3/5/2004 9:01 AM Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge:

The Rascal is a sweet flying plane. It is gentle enough to use as a trainer, but can also be somewhat aerobatic. It has no bad habits and is fun to fly. If you are getting the ARF, I believe it comes with the motor (speed 380/400 and gearbox) and ESC.

For ailerons you will probably have to go to a Rascal 40 and electrify it (there are several threads on RC Universe on this). If you do decide to do that, I suggest HiTec 85 servos - they have 42 oz of torque @4.8 volts and are about 1/2 the size and weight of standard servos. With the Rascal 40 also make sure to beef up the landing gear area, a rough landing can easilt rip out the gear. One other thing with the 40, if you fly off a paved runway, reverse the landing gear. It greatly enhances the ground handling, on grass the normal installation is fine.

I fly both glo and electric. The Rascal 40 with an OS 46 FX is quite aerobatic and will knife edge also.

Reply to
Ted Campanelli

No experience with the rascal, but have flown 2 or 3 similar types and styles of planes, mainly self designed. And no review I have read was anything but highly positive about it.

Ideal next step for you, and the Rascal is a very pretty plane.

Its likely, sadly, that you will break it before you exhaust its limits. So don't worry about upgrading it to ailerons.

By the time you want to try those, you will have a much clearer idea what you want to build next anyway, and it will be time for a new plane.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

The only weak point is the cabin structure which supports the wing. Make sure you are satisfied with the glue joints in this area and see if you can beef this area up without adding a lot of weight ! Otherwise,it's a good electric for beginners with some flying experience

Reply to
John E. Kaiser

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