The original back in its day, about 15 years ago. I’m gonna loose the horrible 1990s color scheme and canopy and make it cool again!
I’m a fan of the Kaos series of planes and got a Killer Kaos* kit around 1998. I remember ordering it by e-mail directly from Joe Bridi, and that it was a very impressive kit with all sawn and sanded parts. He gladly offered advice on building and engine choice, although he disapproved of my choice to mount the engine upright. Well guess what Joe, that’s about to change!
I flew this plane a lot for four full summers, and learned a great deal. It was in fact the fist pattern plane that I never crashed. It was a good, solid flier. Eventually the ailerons came loose and I had plans to do a lot of fixes to it that I never got round to, other planes having taken its place as I started competing actively in F3A. It was sold to a friend in 2004.
I came across an O.S 61 SF last year and had no idea what to put it in, so I gave my friend a call, and it turned out he still had the model, preserved exactly the way it was when he got it. I bought it back, and now it’s never gonna be sold again.
So now I have a completely original, unrestored Bridi Kaos. It’s straight, light, well built (I was surprised at old selfs abilities, I didn’t realize I put that much effort into it back then) and it deserves a complete restoration. Also, I have come to realize that the spirit of the Kaos-line requires a bit of modification, so I’m gonna do that Hot-Rod builders call a restomod, which is short for restoration and modification. And I’m gonna have a ball doing it. It’s gonna be fast and not very loud, it’s actually gonna be kinda fast ‘n’ quiet!
My plans for it includes:
– New engine (an O.S 61 SF) and a spanking new Hatori 650 pipe and header
– Completely new covering and color scheme
– Lighter and better digial servos
– Rebuild the nose to mount the engine on its side
– New and different wing tips
– Individual aileron servos
Enough talk. Here are the pictures!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/aerowold/sets/72157651018400942/
* Some Kaos trivia: The Kaos name was sold to Great Planes in the 80’s when they produced the Trainer 20-60, Kaos 60 and Super Kaos 40-60. After that, Joe Bridi continued to design other versions, but changed the name to Chaos with Ch. Utter Chaos and Killer Chaos to name a few. I never got used to that and so I still call all planes in the series Kaos with a K. Designed by pattern Legend Joe Bridi, the Kaos appeared in RCM magazine in 1970 and the streamlined long-nose Super Kaos with retracts came in 1973 in RCM magazine. That’s a looong time ago and it’s still cool! After Great Planes started kitting the Kaos, Don Anderson created the legendary Ultra Sport which is essentially a Kaos with a turtledeck.
Hi, great website!! I was browsing and noticed you credited the Ultra-sport design to John Anderson, which is what it says on the plan. I remember the original construction article in RCM and Jim Feldman designed it and wrote the article. Jim’s concept for the design was a simple, inexpensive plane that you could practice your pattern routine with and save wear and tear on your contest ship. He gave full credit to Joe Bridi’s Kaos design, saying he used the same wing. The RCM article was from the early ’90’s. I think Don did this with a few design’s he kitted. Great looking Killer
Hi!
Thanks for the nice comments. Yes I think you’re exactly right, it says Don Anderson as designer on the GP plan but I was only recently made aware of the original RCM article – and it’s designer. I’ll be sure to correct it.
What a great web site you have…
Out surfing the net for color schemes for an ARC plane I’m finishing, I came upon your restomod Kaos and the pictures. As I’m scrolling through them a bright light appeared (not really) just the pictures of your ingenious split elevator push rod installation. I am rebuilding a Great Planes 231EX ARF with split elevators, and it originally had a similar(key word) push rod, operated by a single servo. The issue is/was you never get equal throw of both elevators due to the angle of the pushrod movement created by rotational movement of the servo arm. Deciding to eliminate this, I was about to install separate servos to operate each elevator, thus eliminating the unequal deflections. Your arrangement is the better solution, given the space limitations of the fuselage. Now for my question… Do you mock it up, test it and then remove the push rod(s) for covering? Or do you cover around them? Looking forward to hearing back, and again great web site.
Tom
Hi, thanks for your kind comment. I assume you mean this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aerowold/27776345666/in/album-72157669513807631/ ?
For this plane, I covered around it. That was very difficult. You can just make a small hole and put a piece of covering around the rod on each side, but my problem was I could not access all parts of it with the iron. If you have a tiny trim sealing iron, then this works fine.
I Also did this on an ARF Saphir. I cut two slots and removed a portion of the rear fuse to do it. It does create a few sores in the finish, but nobody every looks under the rear fuse underneath the stabs so I might do this again if I ever decide to modify an ARF or pre-built plane.