Brodak Cardinal & SSW 40

Len or anyone-- Is the SSW Tower 40 a good match for a profile Cardinal? If so what are some recommended setups? Also would like to hear about anyone's building and flying experience with the Cardinal.---Thanks, Mark

It's a pretty decent airplane. Mine flies very well and corners like it should.

A few pointers to help would include:

Make the tank cutout go clear to the inside of the inboard doubler. You'll have to re-plumb the over flow vent about 5/8" towards the center of the tank, but it's no biggy. Punch the new hole, don't drill it or you'll have a lot of small pirces of metal inside your tank. You can use a small piece of tin or brass soldered on to seal the old hole.

Use an after market set of dural profile gear instead of the supplied wire ones. they will wobble out the monting hole and become loose over time. Windy has a nice set for about $15.00. If you want to spend a lot more, you could use his molded wheel pants, but I've found that the balsa ones built from the kit will work fine with the dural gear with the kit stock mounting system.

Look at the control system as shown on the plans. If you plan on using the supplied 4" bellcrank and RC type horns, set the flap and elevator pushrod as shown. They are drawn that way on purpose. I've tested this relationship both on the computer and in practise, and you'll get surprizingly decent symetry with the controls set this way.

My plane came up needing tail weight with a Silver Foxx .40, not a light weight compared to an fp or one of it's clones. Some of the best ones I've seen use the venerable ST .46 for power, but an fp or such, has plenty of power.

With an OS .40 fp, tongue muffler, and balanced and trimmed for stunt, mine comes in at 48 oz. about 2 of those oz's are on the tail for balance. Also of note, I fly at 4,300 feet. The plane does great up here and will be even better at lower altitudes.

I have a Brodak Cardinal with an ST.46. It flys very well. It's the only airplane I've ever broken 500 with so far, so I'm pretty partial to it. I used the gold aluminum gear from Windy that John mentioned. Very nice gear. I used bushed control horns on both ends & an arrowshaft pushrod. Captive Dubro ball links on the front three connections & double locked steel clevis at the rear. This system works swell. It likes an 11.5-6.0 made out of a trimmed 12 inch Zinger that's been thinned, trued & pitched to 5.75 with 6.0 tips. I launch it at about 9K & fly it on 66' eye to eye .018's. I flew it 273 times & then hit a fence post with it. I have it repaired & it flys just like it used to, although it needs only quarter ounce of tail weight now, as opposed to a full ounce before. I build heavy & it weighed 56 ounces the first time & I'm sure it put on some weight with the fiberglass I had to use to rejoin the fuse with the repaired wing. Other than less tailweight this time it doesn't make any noticeable difference, so even a porky Cardinal will fly well with enough power. It has another 34 flights on it since repairs. Great airplane.
Nils

It is a nice kit and the plane flies well. The 40 FP mod (or Tower mod) is a perfect combination for the plane. We used a 4.5 ounce uniflow tank, and a 12 x 6 BY&O or a 12.5 x 5.5 Bolly prop on 66 foot lines using the engine with this size plane. Pat Johnston reports using the engine with a 11.5 x 4 APC and getting a perfect 4-2-4 run on 60 foot lines. This is a prop we never tried, but, apparently, works well on shorter lines. You do have options. Use 5% nitro and 20-25% oil, either all castor or 50-50 castor/synthetic.

I built and flew this exact combination for a while using Stuka Stunt 40FP, 12/5 Rev Up, 63' lines. The kit Cardinal weighed 45 oz with kote and did require tail weight. Great combination! power to spare, great line tension everywhere.
I like the idea of Dural gear and would definitely go that way if I built another. If you fly exclusively off grass might want to go with bigger wheels and no wheel pants or provide for interchangeable wheels and pants for use on paved surfaces. Also be sure you have enough gear to handle the 12" props that the SSW 40 prefers.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Len would your long profile gear be the ticket for using 12" props?

Even the medium size will work. The long one will give you a little more clearance, and/or, a wider stance if you want it. We used the medium gear on our planes and got adequate clearance. If you fly off of grass, I would recommend 2 3/4 or 3 inch wheels just to roll better in the grass, but these help with more clearance as well.

Leonard Neumann

Would this be the Mark Mitchell that I used to fly control line with many years ago in Arcadia, CA?

Sad to say George I'm not. I've lived in the Houston, Texas area all my life.