Somethin' Extra Gallery

Sig Somethin' Extra

This was my main build for the spring of 2001. It wasn't the first Somethin' Extra that I had owned, but the first one had been sold to my pal Dave Agombar new-in-box, as he needed a new 40 sized sport plane. I was still attracted to the lines of the SE, so I bought one the following year, and this time actually built it. As my first laser cut kit, it was a pleasure to put together, although the covering scheme was a bit of a pig. Again, it wasn't the first time that I had done it though, as I had covered Dave's for him.

Mine is finished in white Profilm and red Solarfilm Supershrink Polyester. This was the first time I had used the new Solarfilm, and got on quite well.

I bought a new Irvine 40 for this plane, based on the superb performance of the 53 in the Wot 4. I also used five Hitec HS300BBs, which are my favourite general purpose servo, and an eight channel Hitec dual conversion receiver.

The worst feature of this model is having to attach the wings to the fuselage with rubber bands; trying to get them hooked up inside the fuselage was a nightmare. I made longer hooks for the wings to improve access, but it was still fiddly. A tip I saw on the net was to use a cable tie, and cut it at the end of the session for wing removal, and I would have tried this if the plane had lasted longer.

The end came on the third flight. I took off, banked round the first turn of the circuit, and on the downwind leg, the plane started to roll, and no amount of opposite aileron was going to correct it. Although I throttled back well before impact, the damage was extensive, and even a couple of weeks later, it was more than I could face rebuilding.

Analysing the crash, I have concluded that either an aileron servo extension lead failed, or the rear dowel on the wings slipped, allowing one wing to rotate on the main tube - I had relied on a tight friction fit for this dowel in the fuselage.

Another possibility was that I had the rates set too high for my flying ability, and once the plane started to roll, I couldn't handle it. I'll never really know, but it was hard to lose such a new model. The engine is in the new Four Star 40 now.

This page was last updated on 25/06/03