KYOSHO 40 TRAINER CALMATO

Model Airplane News, Jan 2006 by Ronge, Klaus

Earn your wings-no experience required!

I am often asked to recommend airplanes that would be easy for newcomers to learn the wonderful art of RC aviating. High-wing, .40-size, 4-channel, tricycle-gear trainers have long been favorites of students and instructors alike. They have gentle flight characteristics, are inexpensive to buy and operate and are relatively large for better in-flight visibility. Another benefit is that the student learns to use all of the primary controls (aileron, elevator, rudder and throttle) from the beginning.

The Kyosho 40 Trainer Calmato has all of the characteristics of a good trainer the wing's semisymmetrical airfoil allows students to progress into basic aerobatics. The Calmato is one of Kyosho's Super Quality Series (SQS), and it features a high degree of assembly that doesn't require any glue.

THE KIT

The Calmato trainer is a light, well-built, balsa-and-plywood aircraft (great qualities in a trainer!) that is expertly covered and trimmed in an iron-on film. The plane is available in two color schemes: red and green (with a white base for both). Mine is red. All of the control surfaces are CIA-hinged and glued, and the control horns are attached. It comes with a complete hardware package that includes nuts, bolts, nose gear, clevises and pushrods. The 16-page instruction manual relies mostly on diagrams with very little text. If this is your first airplane, make sure that you thoroughly study and understand the instructions. Besides the engine and 4-channel radio system, all you need to add is the spinner and prop.

WING

The wing panels must be joined by a composite plywood/aluminum dihedral brace and the supplied adhesive tape. Two dowels in the leading edge and two wing bolts near the trailing edge secure the wing assembly to the fuselage. This method requires no glue, but because the wing is of manageable size and I have no intention of taking it apart, I chose to epoxy the halves together. The wing is complete after you install the servo and hook up the linkage to the factory-installed aileron torque rods.

TAIL FEATHERS

It doesn't get much easier than this! The fin comes installed. You just align the stabilizer, insert it into the precut slot, drill two holes, and install the two large wood screws. Again, no glue is required, but 1 elected to coat the screws with epoxy to ensure that they don't back out.

FUSELAGE

Kyosho has also done most of the work for you on the fuselage. The factory-assembled fuel tank with fuel lines, the nose-gear block and adjustable motor mount come installed. 1 installed the nylon nose-gear steering ami on the nose-gear wire (the foam nosewheel arrives already attached) and inserted the pushrod. I then passed the nose-gear wire through the gear block and secured it with the wheel collars. The Evolution .40NT fit on the mount, and I installed it easily with the supplied hardware. The main landing gear (also with the 2½-inch wheels attached) is simply bolted to the fuselage bottom.

Calmato Sports

Now that you've mastered your Calmato Trainer 40, what's the next step? Although you may be eager for that P-51 or Extra acrobat, they are very unforgiving, and inexperienced pilots can get in trouble very quickly. To develop the reflexes necessary to fly these high-performance machines, an intermediate low-wing trainer/sport airplane would he the logical next step.

The Kyosho Calmato Sports is an excellent choice for a second plane. It has a generous wing area, a constant-chord wing, a symmetrical airfoil, long-moment arms and tricycle landing gear. The symmetrical airfoil gives it good aeronatic potential because it makes inverted flying easy. The constant-chord wing produces predictable stall characteristics, allowing the plane to slow without fear of tip-stalling. The generous wing area and long-moment anus produce smooth, stable flight.

The kit The Calmato Sports is also part of Kyosho's SQS ARF series and is constructed similarly to the Trainer 40. As with the Trainer 40, the Sports ARF has a high degree of prefabrication and doesn't require any glue. The planes are available in red and blue trim schemes; I chose the red. Since the construction is similar, I will focus on the differences between the Sports version and Trainer 40.

Wing Just as I did on the Trainer 40, I epoxied the wing halves together instead of using the adhesive tape. As the main landing gear is in the wing, nylon straps and screws secure the landing gear. Again, the wheels are attached at the factory.

Fuselage The only difference here is canopy installation. I applied the neat instrument panel decal and canopy trim tape (both supplied) and added a pilot figure from The World Models. The very attractive tinted canopy is held in place by four screws. I placed the battery under the fuel tank, and this brought the CG to the correct location without any added weight.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Kyosho Sports is stable yet maneuverable; in other words, it's a "go where you point it" airplane. The Sports looks good, and like the Trainer 40, it is well built and light. Those who have recently graduated from their high-wing trainers will learn new acrobatic maneuvers easily, and experienced pilots will find this plane an excellent all-around Sunday flyer. Master the Kyosho Calmato Sports, and you'll be able to handle just about any airplane.