Sig Mfg.: Somethin' extra ARF

Model Airplane News, Jun 2002 by Onorato, Jim

FLIGHT TEST

Extra easy ... extra fun

The Somethin' Extra has been providing Sunday fliers with a whole lot of fun for quite some time. Since Sig first introduced it in kit form, its good looks and outstanding flight performance have made It a favorite at RC flying fields all over the world. Now you can get it Into the air more quickly than ever. The almost-ready-to-fly (ARF) Sig Somethin' Extra is the spitting image of its predecessor. It has the same strong, lightweight design and flying capabilities of the original, but this one comes 90 percent built, right out of the box. The Somethin' Extra ARF is expertly covered with Oracover and is offered in two color schemes: white and bright red and white and violet.

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?

Like many of today's high-quality ARFs the Somethin' Extra comes with just about everything you'll need to get flying except the radio, engine, prop, fuel tubing and pilot figure-which is, of course, optional. The major components come built up and already covered. In addition, the package includes colormatched fiberglass wheel pants, wheels, sturdy aluminum landing gear, a clear molded Canopy, I fuel tank, an engine mount, a spinner, tail-support wires and a unique tube wing-mounting system. It also comes with a complete hardware package of high-quality parts and an 18page assembly manual filled with plenty of photos, sketches and detailed as,,sembly instructions. this is a first-class package that's built to the high-quality standards we've come to expect trom Sig kits.

ASSEMBLY

Before you begin assembly, cover your workbench with an old blanket or foam pads to prevent denting or scratching the precovered parts. Remove any wrinkles in the covering with an cloth-covered heat iron. You can also use a hobby-type heat gun to reshrink the covering, but you must be very careful arounf any seams or color joints. Reheating seams will cause them to "creep," and this can male them unsightly. This is especially true with teh Somethin' Extra's trim scheme and pinstriping.

WING

Assemble the wing first. The two wing panels are practically ready to use. You have only to install a servo in each panel, hinge the ailerons and attach the control horns and linkages. The CA-type hinges have a die-cut center slot that, according to the instructions, is supposed to be used to center the hinge equally into both the win panel and the aileron. Here, I chose not to follow the procedure presented in the manual because I felt that placing the hinges with the slot parallel to the hinge line, as instructed, would have left each with an effective hinge width of only about 1/4 inch. Instead, I oriented the hinges with the slot perpendicular to the hinge line and used a pin to center the hinge. This not only uses the full width of the hinge but also allows the Zap CA to wick along the slot and into the wood.

The Somethin Extra's plug-in wing panels are a nice feature, you usually see them only in much larger planes. This obviously climimates the need to glue the wing halves together, and having the wing in two pieces makes for easy transportation and storage. The wing halves are slipped onto an 11/16-inch-diameter aluminum tube and are held in place with a no. 64 rubber band looped over J-hooks threaded into the root aibs-sim and neat!

FUSELAGE

The fuselage comes with the removable canopy hatch in place. To remove the hatch, simply lift it up at the front and slide it forward. The locating dowel pin has already been installed in the rear of the hatch. There are 17 small openings in the fuselage that are covered and should be opened with a no. I I hobby-knife blade. I'he instructions show where all the openings are. When that was complete, I test-fit the wing to the fuselage and glued the antirotation dowel into place.

Next, I prepared the fuselage to accept the stab and fin by removing the spacer blocks that protect the covered fillet blocks at the rear of the fuselage. Since the covering material had already been removed troll) the stab and fill in tin in the areas to be glued, it was easy to epoxy them into place.

Both the stab and fin have factory-prepared holes for the tail braces. I opened these with a metal pick and installed the braces using the provided hardware. After joining the elevator halves with the prebent elevator joiner wire, I hinged the elevator and rudder and attached them to the fuselage along with the tailwheel.

I added a Williams Bros. 2-inch civilian pilot figure and attached the clear canopy with the four screws and silicon washers provided. The more I got into this project, the more I realized just how much thought went into making the Somethin' Extra userfriendly. Most of the holes had already been drilled, including those that accept the four special shouldered silicon washers that help isolate the canopy from vibration. (Do not drop these washers; I speak from experience when I tell you that they are extremely difficult to find.)

Next, I attached the wheels and wheel pants to the aluminum landing gear and bolted the assembly to the fuselage. The finish on the fiberglass wheel pants was excellent; they matched the Oracover perfectly. Again, all the necessary hardware was provided.