The Return of the TigerKitten (7)

The fuselage is beginning to look like it is really going to be part of an airplane, but there are lots of things left to be added, or stuck in place, or sanded, before we can think about heading for the field. You guys who know me already won’t be surprised to learn that the […]

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The Return of the TigerKitten (6)

There’s a lot more work to do on the fuselage, but now we’re getting to the parts I find most interesting. Let’s build a top deck. When I designed the TigerKitten over twenty years ago, I used a combination of dowel pegs and a neat little custom made tube-and-wire latch to hold the top deck […]

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The Return of the TigerKitten (5)

The TigerKitten fuselage construction is about as traditional as it gets …two identical side frames built up from balsa strips with a few shaped pieces in critical areas…but we get to combine state of the art stuff because those shaped pieces are laser cut. We could also use a more traditional adhesive like aliphatic resin […]

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The Return of the TigerKitten (4)

On this airplane, the primary structure of each wing panel consists of all the ribs, the leading and trailing edges, the upper and lower 3/16″ sq. spars and the spar web inserts, and the various pieces that make up the wing tip assembly. So far I have built the and right panels in turn flat […]

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The Return of the TigerKitten (3)

It’s taken me a bit longer than I would have liked to get this blog entry posted…I bought a new computer and have had to go through the drill of learning a new operating system. Now that’s done and we can get back to building model airplanes. There are a few more details to finish […]

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The Return of the TigerKitten (2)

All the good things I promised a few months back are happening. Two of my friends and fellow model builders have formed a new kit production company, Premier Balsa Kits, and their first offering is a laser-cut short kit for theTigerKitten updated for brushless motors and LiPo power. I have agreed to build a new […]

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The Return of the TigerCat

Not long after I finished the design work with the TigerKitten and got the airplane to the point where I was satisfied that I had it right, I developed a larger version. Originally this design was called the TigerCat, and was published as a design feature article in Model Aviation Magazine (January, 1993). A few […]

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Building the (Old) FLYLINE Great Lakes 2T-1A Kit (29)

It’s finished…done…ready to fly. As a matter of fact. the airplane has been flown successfully, but getting me, my photographer friend, and good weather together at the same time has been a problem so you’ll have to take my word for that part for a while. There were a couple of final details that needed […]

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Building the (Old) FLYLINE Great Lakes 2T-1A Kit (28)

All that’s left before flight testing is rigging. In this case that means both rigging the functional controls…hooking the servos to the surfaces…and making up the wing and tail brace wire groups. Let’s look at the servos first. I used Sullivan Gold-N-Rod splined nylon flexible concentric tube connectors (S-504) for the connections between the rudder […]

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