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Sig Skyray Restoration
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Sig Skyray Restoration
I built this Skyray about 11 years ago and flew it a handful of times. After crashing, it tore the engine off and cracking the engine mount and front fuselage i put it on the healing shelf till now. I re glued the fuselage and mount back together, gave the front half a new coat of black dope. I seen a few Skyray's now with landing gear and liked it so i thought sure I'll add a pair. I bought a already bent pair from Bernie and they fit perfect just had to carve out the firewall for the gear to sit in and be clamp by the engine. I built a Silver Stunter engine from parts and added a TD cylinder to it, never ran yet but I hope it has some pull to it. With the landing gear added and the pt-19 propeller nut and spinner it balanced just slightly tail heavy at 5/8 aft of leading edge. Hope to fly it soon with good results.








Canso07- Gold Member
- Posts : 104
Join date : 2016-12-12
Age : 42
Location : Calgary, Canada
Re: Sig Skyray Restoration
Looks Good !! keep us posted!!

getback- Top Poster
Posts : 9836
Join date : 2013-01-18
Age : 66
Location : julian , NC
Re: Sig Skyray Restoration
Looks nice. I like the color scheme as well. Mine is extremely tail heavy and does not fly well, so a good sanding is in order to remove the can of paint I used on it..... I only mention this as mine is completely black so will be borrowing some of your color scheme but using different colors.
NEW222- Top Poster
- Posts : 3869
Join date : 2011-08-13
Age : 45
Location : oakbank, mb
Re: Sig Skyray Restoration
Yeah the color scheme really fit the Skyray, it's has the same scheme underneath also. Send picks when your is all shined up NEW222.
Canso07.
Canso07.
Canso07- Gold Member
- Posts : 104
Join date : 2016-12-12
Age : 42
Location : Calgary, Canada
Re: Sig Skyray Restoration
Will do. The reason for mine being the way it was is that i tried to fill in the woodgrain with paint. So I just layed it on thick. When it set up if i saw the grain still, I put on another coat.... younger and stupider I guess.
NEW222- Top Poster
- Posts : 3869
Join date : 2011-08-13
Age : 45
Location : oakbank, mb
Re: Sig Skyray Restoration
It's a really pretty bird.
Balance that fore-aft c/g to where the plans say before you fly it, or it'll be disappointing unless you've got a well tuned hand. If need be, you can cut off about a third of the rudder height and reshape it stylishly and lose some weight.
And all the other pre-flight bench trimming will make it safer too; confirm that it hangs a little nose-down while hanging from the neutral leadouts. And make sure you have a couple or 3 degrees of outward thrust on the engine mount. It should fly really well if all that is right. Good luck.
Rusty
Balance that fore-aft c/g to where the plans say before you fly it, or it'll be disappointing unless you've got a well tuned hand. If need be, you can cut off about a third of the rudder height and reshape it stylishly and lose some weight.
And all the other pre-flight bench trimming will make it safer too; confirm that it hangs a little nose-down while hanging from the neutral leadouts. And make sure you have a couple or 3 degrees of outward thrust on the engine mount. It should fly really well if all that is right. Good luck.
Rusty
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RknRusty- Rest In Peace
- Posts : 10869
Join date : 2011-08-10
Age : 67
Location : South Carolina, USA
Re: Sig Skyray Restoration
I like the color/trim! I also like the landing-gear. We're probably the minority there.. but "real airplanes" have wheels. You can also functionally-trim the balance with different weight wheels... rather than adding useless weight to the nose or tail.
Those wheels look nice! I like them a lot! Where did you find those? You mentioned getting the gear-wire from Cox International.. but I doubt that the wheels were included.. because I see that they're retained by set-screw-type collars. Another trick you can apply "if" the model is tail-heavy.. is to remove the gear-wire and bend the legs forward a "little bit" in a bench-vise. This will place the weight of the music-wire struts "and" wheels a little further forward. Music-wire is HEAVY... and a slight-forward-angle can make a BIG difference in weight-distribution on a model as small as this one. Your struts are currently at 90 degrees to the fuse.. and could be angled forward quite a bit. This can also help the model to "roll-out" when landing.. without nosing-over.
I also LOVE the solid lead-out wires!
Old school...
All of my C/L models have solid-wire lead-outs. I bought a "tube" (x50 pcs..) of K & S .015" (.38mm) wire for future 1/2A C/L airplane builds. I'll probably never use it up in my lifetime.
Those wheels look nice! I like them a lot! Where did you find those? You mentioned getting the gear-wire from Cox International.. but I doubt that the wheels were included.. because I see that they're retained by set-screw-type collars. Another trick you can apply "if" the model is tail-heavy.. is to remove the gear-wire and bend the legs forward a "little bit" in a bench-vise. This will place the weight of the music-wire struts "and" wheels a little further forward. Music-wire is HEAVY... and a slight-forward-angle can make a BIG difference in weight-distribution on a model as small as this one. Your struts are currently at 90 degrees to the fuse.. and could be angled forward quite a bit. This can also help the model to "roll-out" when landing.. without nosing-over.
I also LOVE the solid lead-out wires!



Re: Sig Skyray Restoration
Thx roddie and everyone else for the compliments and thoughts. I will definitely bend the landing gear forward for better ground control and also get the CG a little nose down. The wheels are from a Carl Goldberg Lil Wizard kit I built before probably 20 years ago, great 1/2a wheels for sure. I forgot to mention the Skyray weighs in at exactly 7oz.
Canso07.
Canso07.
Canso07- Gold Member
- Posts : 104
Join date : 2016-12-12
Age : 42
Location : Calgary, Canada

» Great video on building and flying the 1/2A Skyray and Skyray 35
» Skyray 35 Wings
» Sig Skyray
» Sig Skyray
» Got me a SkyRay !
» Skyray 35 Wings
» Sig Skyray
» Sig Skyray
» Got me a SkyRay !
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