THE SE5a HAD A DISTINGUISHED CAREER DURING WW I, and it turned the tide of air supremacy for the Bntish when it proved to be a deadly match for the German Albatros fighter. Now, ModelTech's .46-size ARF version continues that tradition of innovation and superiority. Not only does this plane look good in the air, but it's also one of the easiest and fastest ARFs I've ever assembled.
    ModelTech's SE-5A features all-wood construction; an iron on covering; a painted fiberglass cowl; wire wheels; adjustable, metal center-cabane struts; wooden outer struts; and a vacuum-formed gun. A 4-channel radio and .52 to .61 4-stroke are recommended.
IN THE BOX
Inside the box, everything is wrapped in its own plastic bag-even the nuts and bolts. I sorted the bags by construction steps so I would have only a few loose parts on the bench during any step of the assembly. When I removed the fuselage from the bag, the first thing I noticed was that there weren't any wrinkles in the covering. Next, I checked the wings, and they, too, were wrinkle-free, as were all the other covered parts-not unusual, as the covering is Top Flite MonoKote. On inspecting the parts, I could tell right away that this is a high quality kit that would be fun to build. The kit is so complete that the only things I needed to complete it were a Magnum .52 4-stroke, a radio, 5 servos, two 14-inch servo extensions, one 6-inch Y-harness, some fuel-line tubing, fuel, and glue.

WING ASSEMBLY
With most of the kits I assemble, I like to start with the wings-mainly, attaching the ailerons. The slots are already cut, so all I had to do was insert the hinges, align everything and glue them into place with CA. Both wings are of one-piece construction, so no assembly was needed. Each wing has its own hardware bag, so it is easy to find the various nuts and bolts you need to attach them to the fuselage.
    I test-fit the bottom wing onto the fuselage, but before attaching it, I made sure that the wingtips were equal distance to the fuselage tail. My next step was to install all of the mounting plates and hardware necessary to bolt on the top and bottom wings. The instructions were very clear about where everything went. I used 2 Cirrus 26BB servos for the ailerons. Then all I had to do was to glue the mounting blocks on the tray and bolt down the servos. In this kit, you won't find the usual string that pulls the servo extensions through the wing. ModelTech installed paper tubes in the wing for you to guide the servo wires through. I found this to be a much easier way to accomplish this task. I used two 14-inch servo-wire extensions and one 6-inch Y-harness to connect the servos to the receiver.

The N-struts are attached to the top and bottom wings with hex nuts and bolts. This secure attachment allows easy wing removal.

After the cowl has been removed, there is plenty of room to work on the Magnum .52 4-stroke.

The radio equipment is easy to access through the wing saddle. Ample room between the servos ensures that none of the servo wheels rubs against any other.

FUSELAGE ASSEMBLY
The first step in the fuselage's construction is to install the tail section. I inserted the vertical stabilizer into precut slots in the horizontal stabilizer and temporarily aligned it. I made marks to show where I needed to cut the covering material from both the horizontal and vertical stabilizers. I used 30-minute epoxy to attach the stabilizer and fin together; before the epoxy cured, I used a square to align everything. After the epoxy had cured, I pinned the tail section to the fuselage. I measured from the wingtip to the tip of the stabilizer to make sure that the tail was aligned with the wing. After some minor adjustments, I epoxied the tail section to the fuselage using 30-minute epoxy. I hinged all the control surfaces to the tail section and installed the HS-422 servos into the servo tray before I epoxied it into the fuselage. I assembled the fuel tank and installed it into the front of the fuselage with foam packed around it to insulate it from vibration. The last thing I did was to attach the engine mount to the firewall. This was simple to do because the mounting holes had already been drilled into the mount, and the blind nuts were preinstalled.

In the Air

For the SE-5A, I used a Magnum.52 4-stroke with a stock muffler, a Zinger 11x7 wooden prop and 15% Wildcat fuel. This combination provides plenty of power to pull the 5.5-pound plane around the sky with some authority. Control throws Elevator: ±1/2 in. (low); ±3/4 in. (high) Elevator: ±1/4 in. (low); ±5/8 in. (high) Rudder: ± ½ in. ( low); ± 7/8 in. (high) GENERAL FLIGHT CHARACTERISTICS >Stability: this plane handles very well even at slow speeds. That really is a nice feature when you are on final approach for landing. >Tracking: the SE-5A tracks quite well on the ground even though there is no tailwheel (just a skid). In the air, the plane flies straight and true; it locks on to the direction In which you point It. >Aerobatics: this scale WW I biplane will do all the scale maneuvers that the full-size one did. The model flies through each maneuver with smoothness and authority. >Glide performance: if you set the wing incidence and balance the plane correctly, It will glide very well under little power. With no power, Just keep a nosedown attitude. >Stalls: when the plane climbs at 45 degrees and the power is cut to an idle, it will stall, drop a wing slightly and then drop its nose down; after a short buildup of speed, it recovers very quickly.

PILOT DEBRIEFING Every time I fly the plane, I'm impressed with Its performance; this is a good flying aircraft. The Magnum .52 4-stroke is the perfect mill for this plane. On the ground, it uses up only about 20 feet of the runway with little rudder correction before it leaps into the air. Once in the air, I can fly it at ½ throttle. At full throttle, it flies a little faster than scale speed, but it has plenty of power to do the scale maneuvers such as split-S's, loops, rolls and combinations of these. When I came in for my first landing, I was surprised because when I cut the throttle down to about ¼, the plane still had too much power to land. On my next approach, I reduced the throttle to a little above idle, and the SE-5A just floated down. When the plane got close to the ground, I flared a little, and it sat down for a nice 3-point landing. On the rollout, I used the rudder to control the tracking and found It to be quite effective.

FINAL ASSEMBLY
I installed the pushrods on the servos for the tail section and connected the pushrods to the rudder and elevator using the supplied devises. I then put the battery under the fuel tank and secured it in place with foam. I used the Magnum .52 4-stroke for power. The engine is positioned on the mount so that the prop washer is 4-3/4 inches from the firewall. I marked the locations of the holes needed for the bolts and locknuts and drilled them into the firewall. After the engine had been mounted, I slid the throttle pushrod into the preinstalled pushrod sleeve and connected the throttle servo.
    Before I installed the fiberglass cowl, I used thick paper to make a template and marked the exhaust, needle valve and glowplug cutouts on it. With the cowl in place, I transferred the locations of all the holes and then cut them out of the cowl. I slid the cowl over the engine and attached it to the front of the fuselage.
    Now that everything was installed and hooked up inside the fuselage, I remounted the wings. I mounted the bottom wing first and then added the N-struts and the top wing. Because this is a biplane, it's important to check each wing's angle of incidence. The bottom wing should have 0 degree of incidence, and the top wing should have 1 degree of incidence. After I checked the center of gravity in my SE-5A, it was ready to go.

CONCLUSION
The SE-5A has the scale looks of a formidable WW I aircraft and the docile flight characteristics of a stable, advanced trainer. If you're looking for something that's easy to assemble and has solid flight performance, you've found your plane. Add the scale looks of a plane that turned the tide of war, and how can you go wrong?

When WW I began in 1914, the airplane was barely 11 years old. It was nothing more than a plodding, noisy kite and was barely more dangerous than an observation balloon. As a weapon, it was difficult to take it seriously, but only four short years later, it had been transformed into a multidimensional weapon system of awesome potential. The Royal Aircraft Factory's SE5a is a classic case in point: it showed clearly that in time of war, man can quickly find efficient ways to rain death on his enemy.     The Scout Experimental 5 (SE5) was designed specifically to eliminate the awful shortcomings of aircraft such as the Sopwith Camel, and at the same time, give it an edge in combat over Germany's lethal Fokkers. The heart of the design for the SE5 was the Hispano Suiza liquid-cooled V-8. The 150hp engine was much easier for neophyte pilots to operate, and it didn't constantly try to twist the airplane into a pretzel the way the whirling rotary of the Camel did.     The less cantankerous engine was coupled with an airframe that replaced the fragile bones of the Camel with a robustness that would stand the new pilot in good stead in combat and in day-to-day operations. It was an extremely easy airplane to take off and land-something that absolutely could not be said about the Camel and its all-or-nothing kill-switch engine control. Moreover, when it was thrown around during a dogfight, it was working with the pilot; the Camel often fought its pilot and required him to compensate for its eccentricities. Although not as maneuverable as the Camel, the SE5 was much more flyable (read: less dangerous), and this meant that a pilot could concentrate on killing his enemy rather than being killed by his own airplane. Because of this, the Royal Air Force could take fledgling pilots and turn them into effective aerial warriors in much less time.     The original 150hp SE5 was relatively ineffective because of reliability problems and because only a limited number of those planes reached the front. By 1918, however, the 150hp Hispano Suiza had been replaced with the more powerful, geared 200hp Hispano and, later, the Wolseley Viper, which gave rise to the "a" in SE5a. With either engine, the airplane carried a synchronized Vickers, belt-fed .303-caliber machine gun that fired through the propeller and a drum-fed Lewis gun on the top wing in a sliding mount. The Lewis could be fired straight ahead over the prop or upward at an oblique angle. The ability to fire upward let the SE5a pilot shoot into the belly of an unsuspecting enemy or fire across the circle in a dogfight.     Fast (135mph), easy to fly and with a high rate of climb, the SE5a became an ace maker-witness Mick Mannock (73 kills) and Billy Bishop (72 kills). The fact that the SE5a was in combat for barely a year speaks volumes. In that short time, the airplane cut a swath through the enemy and in so doing, earned a place in history's fighter hail of fame. -Budd Davisson Visit Budd on the Web at airbum.com.