Dare Smoothie Kit

All,
My first time doing this so go easy on me .....

I bought this kit two years ago from Penn Valley hobby center
here is their web link:

http://www.pennvalleyhobbycenter.com/

here is a web link for the kit:

http://www.sshobbies.com/prsmcolikit.html


Here is the kit

http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/yhst-19525360292621_1925_1676873

Now the kit was all laser cut and included good quality wood throughout - All extra miscellaneous items were included except for the second elevator horn and flap and elevator joiner wires and leadouts. All the hardware was of good quality.

Down sides were that the doublers to the kit were made out of light ply and there were some size differences between spars and spar slots.

Laser cutting was perfect but the spar/leading edge/trailing edge were stock wood which had minor variations

Kit went together well with minimal changes to the original parts - I did not sand any of the laser edges on the parts except for one which fit perfectly and after my sanding it fit less perfectly

I haven't flown this plane yet but as soon as the weather warms up I'll take it out for a try and post the results here

engine is an OS LA 40 with a 11/3 wide blade top flite prop - 4ounce perfect tank (from brodak)

[photo not recovered: st11.gif]Attachment #1, (st11 file)

I, too, recently built a Dare "Smoothie", and found it to be a good kit. One thing I noticed is that the folks at Dare could be a bit more careful when they pack the box. Your comment about the elevator horn sort of bears that out. Mine came with the wrong landing gear. The wire was smaller diameter than called for. I made it work by strengthening the gear with a wire strut, and it works OK. Also, I thought I had the elevator and flaps aligned correctly and the balance point where it should be, but in the air, the plane "hunted" like crazy. We improved that by cranking in a bit of down elevator. Mine is powered by a Fox 35 turning a 10/6 wood prop, which is more than enough power. They're a good kit for the money. Glen

Thanks for the tid bit about the "down elevator" - I actually built some in but was getting ready to "readjust" to neutral - I'll leave it in now,

What engine are you using?

I've got a Fox 35 on it. This one is a Lew Woolard makeover. The last time I flew, when it hunted, I had a stock Fox 35 on it. I'm anxious to see how the "souped up" one runs in the air. Glen

Fox 35's are my engine of choice - mostly because they are inexpensive and I can easily get parts for them.

Some extra notes on the kit:

-because of the missing elevator horn I used a flap horn from SIG.
-I bent the joiner wire from 3/32" music wire
-and added 1/64" ply reinforcement to all the joiner wire areas.
-I also substituted a new pushrod that is 3/32" music wire with a carbon fibre tube sleeve to stiffen it.
-I added cross bracing to the internal bays on the spars and cross bracing on all the rib/spar joints

This is just my kit bashing and not because the kit "lacked" in these areas. I tend to bash all my kits sooner or later....

Mine has no flap or elevator horns either

Hey McCoy,

I hope you're not using one of those SIG horns with the plastic upright...I built a Gorgeous OTS Nobler with one, and guess what? I got caught in a "whip up" on a windy day at the Chicopee nats and BLAM! Yup, the plastic broke at the flap hole!

Ward

Attachment #1, (jpg file)

Yep - the same one! I though it looked adequate but now I'll have to live with it til the next kit

McCoy,
You could avoid future horn problems by just cutting off the nylon part of the current horn and bolting on a conventional control horn to your elevator. Lots of these on the market. On a profile, there is no need for the horn to be part of the connector wire. As mentioned, these horns are not very strong and tend to fail early.
Steve

Yah- I hear you. I normally do it that way but for some reason I went with the SIG ready-to-go unit this time.

Oh well....

I'll think of some way to reinforce it

Mine (received at XMAS) had one horn missing too.

I will fit mine with engine clamps - but will probably start with Merco 35.

Tony

I'm thinking of notching the t/e of the ribs and adding a 1/8 sq tab to the t/e cap to facilitate building the wing on my wing jig - any comments?

Tony

I may not understand you correctly - but here it goes

I don't believe there is enough wood on the TE for a 1/8 inch slot -

I would consider 1/32" though and this would facilitate hinging etc.

See Diagram:

Attachment #1, (jpg file)

Beautiful Nobler by the way.

Well I'll be darned; you mean a Fox .35 will work on a profile? I've always read that they won't. (lol)

I see Fox .35's flying in profiles every week at our field in Tulsa.

Finally got to fly the Dare Smoothie with the "Woolardized" Fox 35 turning a 10/6 Zinger, yesterday. I used a GRW uniflow 4 oz. tank with muffler pressure, but only put about 3 oz in the tank. Launched at a steady 4 cycle. Great engine run, nice transition to 2 cycle in the maneuvers, plenty of power over the top, no burp on the outsides, ran same inverted as right side up. The plane still wants to climb; probably need some weight in the nose. No problem with line tension; rudder offset per plans; no engine offset. Again, the Dare kits seem to be well worth the money. Glen