Sixth photo group:
#1-HK Ryan STA EPO - AVIATION FUEL ONLY decal
#2-HK Ryan STA EPO - AVIATION FUEL ONLY decal, shot 2
#3-HK Ryan STA EPO: "FrogTape Delicate Surface" masking tape-nice product!
#4-HK Ryan STA EPO: "FrogTape Delicate Surface" masking tape-nice product! Open container. AA battery for scale reference.
#5-HK Ryan STA EPO: Close -up of read-out @890.0 g
#6-HK Ryan STA EPO: On tray rig set-up on scale
#7-HK Ryan STA EPO: Close-up of tray rig, scale read-out @ 77.2g

Net weight of model: 890.0g - 77.2g = 812.8 grams or 28.67 oz. with 2200mAh battery shown above.

That FrogTape "Delicate Surface " tape is really a nice product. Not cheap but very useful, and effective. Check at Home Depot, Lowes, Wal-Mart, etc. for availability.

I shot a little "unboxing" video that I'll post on YouTube when decently edited, and I'll post the URL here in case anybody would care to see it. It'll have a few shots of the factory-fresh from-the-kit model components -- Unboxed!

Also, I'm working on a tandem cockpit conversion with clear windscreens that would pop in place of the stock cockpit cover and without modifying the fuselage opening/structure.

Cheers!

Pegasus, have you flown it yet?

vtdiy,
I have not flown it. I probably do not yet possess the skill to make a decent attempt at flying this bird. (Waaahhhh....) I've gotten a friend who is a competitive DLG pilot to look it over and your assessment re: the large elevator and high-drag flying wires and related handling issues were exactly what he thought too! He said he thought it looked and felt like it would fly reasonably well but would be a fast park flyer and have high landing speed, making it a risky proposition for a less than say a "skilled intermediate" pilot. But, he did not fly it. He actually suggested I could just suspend it from the ceiling in my man-cave room and admire it as a static model. This is not what I have in mind but took his comment as a compliment re: the looks of the model.
Everyone that's seen it says the same thing, "Wow! That's a pretty plane!" Even my lovely wife likes it!

Pegasus,

Fly it! I flew mine stock out of the box and it was fine. Same when I maidened the red and white one for a friend. The STA flies just fine stock. Yes, it is a little faster than I might like (not so scale), but it ROGs in low to medium grass (that big elevator helps here) and handles pretty well in the air. Landings are a touch fast, but nothing that the average flier can't handle. No, I don't recommend it for beginners, but if you can handle a PZ T-28, this shouldn't present any surprises.

BTW, I weighed mine last night and with the stock wheels, rigging, and flap servos, I came in at 25.6 ounces. I still need a couple of mist coats on silver on the fuselage and have to add the canopies, rollover pylon, instrument panel and the pilot, but that stuff is all foam or PET and shouldn't add much to the all up weight. I have to travel for the next week to ten days, but once back, a couple of evenings will finish it off then it is off to the field. I have really missed this bird since the midair!

Vtdiy,

I found that any masking of the yellow (OK,orange) paint results in it coming pretty much right off. Michael's Craft Stores carry a number of different brands of acrylic paints (maybe Apple Barrel), one of which is a nearly perfect match for the wing color. Maybe a skosh of orange would make it perfect. It is very flat and a spray of satin clear would help blend it in. I left mine flat and painted the effected areas in square patterns, making it look like patches. A little weathering never hurt any anybody and trainers were used and abused! I also added wingwalks cut from strips of 2000 grit wet or dry sandpaper. My fuselage is sprayed with Duplicolor Ford Silver, available at any Auto Zone. Put on a couple of coats of WBPU first, or it will eat the foam. I trimmed off all the rivets. As molded, they would be pretty closed to accurate for a model of the Titanic in the same scale, not that it really matters.

Any Ryan experts out there? Seeing as the HK model has only one cockpit, would this not be a replica of the STB rather than the two hole A? I sanded a depression at the front of the hatch and have painted it black with silver details, duplicating a front cockpit with a leather cover snapped over it. Those things got awful drafty with the front pit open and I don't want my little foam guy to catch cold.

Originally Posted by Fravits

Maybe a skosh of orange would make it perfect.

Now there's a word I haven't heard in a long time.

Originally Posted by Fravits

I trimmed off all the rivets. As molded, they would be pretty closed to accurate for a model of the Titanic in the same scale, not that it really matters.

I always considered them about the size of scale golf balls.

Originally Posted by Fravits

Any Ryan experts out there? Seeing as the HK model has only one cockpit, would this not be a replica of the STB rather than the two hole A?

The military used the STA and all military Ryans had two cockpits. PT as in PT-20 stands for primary trainer. Primary trainers were used to teach non pilots how to fly. It wouldn't make much sense to have a primary trainer with only one seat. Where would the instructor sit? As far as I know there is only one single cockpit Ryan ST. It originally had two cockpits but it was modified for racing. It now resides in a museum.

Larry

Wiki link for Ryan ST series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_ST
I think this presents a reasonably good history of the aircraft and it's variants.

Another GREAT link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmar...7626514780879/

San Diego (Ryan's HQ was always here) Air & Space Museum's photo archives, Ryan Aeronautical collection on Flickr's servers.
Tons of great photos that show the development of ST/PT variants and "users".
Some have a real artsy-fartsy flavor (aroma?) to them. I guess because the basic design of the aircraft is so pleasing to begin with.

I've grabbed a pile of these pics and put them in the screensaver of my 27" iMac and whenever inactive for a few minutes, a cool vintage slideshow automatically cranks up of all manner of Ryan ST/PT pics...
Some show an STA piloted by "Tex Rankin". He's the guy that won the International Aerobatic Championship in 1937 in an STA (160hp supercharged version). I think he was a big celebrity around the Ryan plant after that!

Somewhere in my on-line research I came across an image of a document that showed the price of a delivered basic Ryan ST (125 hp version) as I recall, about $6500!
In depression-era money, that was a big pile of it! Before the US Gov't. and some other Gov'ts. came calling just before the war outbreak, it took a well-healed individual or one backed by someone well-healed to afford one of these then-cutting-edge little planes.

Hope this helps and is enjoyed!
Cheers!

Originally Posted by pegasus.pony

vtdiy,
I have not flown it. I probably do not yet possess the skill to make a decent attempt at flying this bird. (Waaahhhh....) I've gotten a friend who is a competitive DLG pilot to look it over and your assessment re: the large elevator and high-drag flying wires and related handling issues were exactly what he thought too! He said he thought it looked and felt like it would fly reasonably well but would be a fast park flyer and have high landing speed, making it a risky proposition for a less than say a "skilled intermediate" pilot. But, he did not fly it. He actually suggested I could just suspend it from the ceiling in my man-cave room and admire it as a static model. This is not what I have in mind but took his comment as a compliment re: the looks of the model.
Everyone that's seen it says the same thing, "Wow! That's a pretty plane!" Even my lovely wife likes it!

Pegasus, elevator travel is just a personal preference thing -- not a design problem -- just set travel adjust on your Tx and expo the way you like to fly. And wires just mean she will slow down quicker, and need a little more power to fly straight and level. So you will probably need to keep speed up on the landing approach, either by a steep approach dead-stick (my preference), or holding some power.

What I would be more concerned with is the weight of 29 oz. as this will mean you have to fly faster and need more power for that to avoid a stall.

One thing that might help is adding a little incidence to the wing with a thin spacer at the rear. That will help the plane fly level, which reduces drag.

But you could certainly reduce weight (a much better solution) without affecting the appearance -- which is important to you. The main alteration needed to reduce weight would be a smaller battery, moved forward, and the ESC moved forward, and removing the ballast. If you did this, I bet you could lose 3 ounces right away. It would take basically an evening to do that. And the cost of a 1300 mah 3S batt.

I've moved both battery and ESC forward now, and will detail what I've done with photos in case it is of interest.

Hey. I just weighed the disc-shaped nose weight that came on my model, removed when I moved the ESC to it's present position. Weight: 21.7 grams. (By my Harbor Freight US-Magnum 1000XR digital scale).

Oops, didn't realize you'd already done that!

vtdiy,
Yeah... turns out that I have a new 1300 mAh 3S that I bought for another project. I'll just have to make an EC3 to XT60 adapter and ***presto!*** The Ryan loses about 85 grams in a really beneficial spot.
Michael the DLG pilot's comment was the Ryan has a "huge" elevator area and I'd probably do well keeping elevator rate/throw lower than Aileron or Rudder.
But it sounds like your experience indicates the Rudder should be watched carefully too, to prevent low speed tip stalls. Is that an example of "coupling"?

And--- you're right. Appearance is important to me, though I realize this HK (manufactured by Lanyu) model is "off" in a lot of places it's still a nice representation of a cool Thirties era aircraft!

One other thing... HK still has on-line listings for the Ryan STA EPO but I checked Lanyu's website and they don't list it anymore. Could be a BH and HK exclusive I guess...

Cheers!

Fravits,
Give that FrogTape "delicate surface" masking tape a try. That's what I used and very little yellow paint came off during the (re)painting process of which I posted a pic.
You're right about the TITANIC rivets!

Cheers!

re my masking tape paint pull-off -- I was actually doing a test trying to pull off paint. You can use masking tape to remove paint on foamies if you plan on re-painting. It works better on some foams than others. Looks like it will be easy on the Ryan as I was only using low tack tape in the test.

Gents: I've had my ryan for sometime now (oh yeah since cristmas) I've flown it stock with a 1800mah turnigy stuffed up front.Not a bad flyer -alittle fast but that's o.k.. YEAH THOSE RIVETS ARE BIG-ALMOST AS BIG AS THE WIFE'S I found out not by choice how well the paint comes off with tape,because the cowl was taped onto the fuse from the factory! Geez the cowl was snug on there to begin with,i mean snug gents! Those horking pieces of tape had no mercy no matter how careful i was. I mean to get the ryan out again before the end of the flying season(end of october) as she's not a bad plane for $89... cheers gents-k

$59.95 at HK now. Bet they're being closed out -- get one while you can, if interested. Both the Red and White and blue and orange are the same price. I think the red and white is lighter (less paint).

I did a fair amount of foam carving foprward on mine, mounted the ESC under the turtledeck just aft of the cowl line. Motor will definitely be an Emax CF2822. I removed the screws from the tail section, and also all of the plastic buttons/retainers there for those.

I put most of the radio and motor gear aboard and weighed again and was down to just over 22 oz. Big change from the original 27 oz!

That was encouraging enough to make me decide to re paint. I found the tape didn't pull the paint off very well after all. So I sanded the blue lightly, and sanded down the rivets -- left them slightly raised, but a lot less obvious. Brushed on diluted lightweight spackle, and sanded it back off. Then sprayed a first coat of Rustoleum #7718 Chrome.

I got some elastic cord, and may add the flying wires back using that after a maiden.

One negative -- I found the last owner had glued the wing on when he repaired the break in the wing. No way I'll get that off again, but I guess it isn't necessary.