building banshee

i will be starting an older sig banshee. it seems like there is alot of modifications to be made to the original plans, could i get some ideas on what to do. and what motor would be good on this plane.

thanks for the help

Brad- do a search for "sig banshee", there's a ton of info already here. be sure to check the "search archives" box.

brad the only thing I did to mine was cut the nose down I don't know how much i guess an 1" but I made it so a plastic 4oz tank fit behind the engine pretty snug it flew great..

Hi Brad
Mods will also depend on engine choice. First thing is to cut nose by 1 3/4" this will yeild a nose moment of 8 1/4" from the leading edge to the back of the prop,check your plans to be shure it's been a few years since I built mine. Now if your using a loop scavenged engine then you will need to use 3/32" doublers but if you plan to use a more modern shnurele ported engine than you can use 1/16" doublers this will make the front end a little lighter and still be plenty stiff.
Good luck
Dwayne

I'm building one now.
1. Shorten the nose
2. Flaps are made out of 1/4" balsa
3. Stab is larger and made out of 1/4" balsa along with the elevators.
4. 1/16 Ply doublers.
Power will be a OS 35 or 40 FP. That's the changes I'm making.

>i will be starting an older sig banshee. it seems like there
>is alot of modifications to be made to the original plans,
>could i get some ideas on what to do. and what motor would
>be good on this plane.
>
>
> thanks for the help

not a lot just simply cut 2" off the nose and square off the ends on the elevator and stab, Flies great, here's an old photo

im thinking of useing a fox 35 or as max 40 la havent decided.

Most everyone shortens the nose and you should consider that if you plan to use modern engine(read heavy). The plane will balance out ok with a Fox 35 and a tongue muffler otherwise.

In my opinion, if you do just one thing to it: replace the doublers!

Fuselage on my Banshee was rebuilt after a minor crash that ripped the nose apart due to crappy doublers. The new fuselage uses birch doublers of the same thickness. Since then I've had a number of minor accidents and the fuselage held up very well.

The only reason to shorten the nose is to be able to use a more modern, read that as heavier, engine. It should balance with a Fox sans muffler. If you use a muffler, and you should, you might come out a little nose heavy.

The best way to make things balance out with a heavier, modern engine, is to make a plug for the wing cutout, and make a new wing cutout about 2 inches forward. This will do two helpful things for you. Moving the tailplane back two inches will help balance the heavier engine, as well as increasing the tail moment.

You could also add an inch or two to the span of the stab and elevators, but that isn't as important as getting it all to balance without added weight.

I built one a few months ago and put an OS LA 46 on it with a 4 oz tank. It flew pretty crappy. I had to add a lot of tail weight. I started reading these forums and posted a question about how to make it fly better. I have crashed it pretty hard a few times and it has held up other then the silkspan. I have since shortened the nose till there is just enough room to fit a brodak 4 oz tank, I used coverite on the wings and put on aluminum landing gear. I flew it a dozen or so times this week and am getting better with it. It still is a little lazy. I am thinking of using this motor on a different plane and getting a smaller motor for this one. My brother just built a skyray 35 and put an OS LA 25 on it and it does some pretty tight loops and will out fly my Banshee any time. While you are building yours do yourself a huge favor and make the slots longer so you can move the motor mount rails back for future shortening.