Planejaw

My Feedback: (53)

Just received the new Great Planes 30cc Citabria. This is one of the first airplanes I've ever received where the structure, covered in Monokote, was not baggy when removed from the box. Other than a couple of seams, the covering was perfect. Everything was well packed and no damage from shipping. Color match between the covering, fiberglass cowl, wheel pants and forward hatch/windscreen, are all perfect. Wing-tips are beautifully finished. Side windows are pre-installed. The wing has fairly thin cross-section, which means lower drag, but will likely provide for some interesting stall charascteristics. The flaps should help increase drag and reduce stall speed at landing, however.

So far, with about six-hours into the assembly, I have installed the aileron and flap servos in both wings (Savox 1257/1267), along with the flap/aileron pushrods. Same servos will be used for each elevator half and rudder. Curious why GP went with a pushrod on the rudder instead of a pull-pull setup. Probably could retro-fit this, as there's plenty of room between the elevator/rudder servos in the long rectangular mounting area in the cabin area. I'll have to take a closer look at the structure in the aft-fuselage area. I have a Smart-Fly Sport Plus with ignition cut-off and will run Hobbico LiFe 2100 or 3200 packs. A new DLE-30 cc with a J-Tec wrap-around muffler will provide fantastic power for this aircraft. I have also installed the landing gear, tires/wheel pants, hinged the elevators, rudder and epoxied the horizontal stab and vertical fin.

The included aluminum spiner is drilled and cut for a DLE-30/35 engine/propeller combination.

I'm not a fan of the "cowl-ring" cowl-mounting system, similar to other GP models, like the former 50cc Yak and others. It's a multi-step process where you have to attach the ring to the firewal, mount dry-mount the cowl, then with a long stick, add some epoxy to attach the cowl to the ring, then remove the cowl and mix up some epoxy/milled fiberglass to fully attach the cowl to the ring. This is great for a scale look, but I'm going to add some hardwood blocks to the firewall and use external cowl-mount screws. A little sacrifice in scale appearance in a "stand-off" scale aircraft, won't harm a thing, and it will greatly incease the ease of cowl installation/removal.

By the way, the airplanes on the west coast have already sold out and once sold out in the East, they'll be on back-order. Get one while you can. They're disappearing fast.

I'll try to post some photos in the next day or so.

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

I got mine today, it is better than I thought it would be. I have a DLE 35RA, with onboard starter.

dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

Off hand, how well will that Electric Start fit in the Cowl; I am considering the same thing on my DLE 35RA for my Citabria which comes next week!

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

It fits the motor perfectly, but it will not go in the cowl unless you michine a new mount, or turn the motor 5 to 10 deg. it will hit the top of the cowl.

dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

Are you still going to use the onboard Starter, I think I may pass if you have to move the Engine or machine a new mount, I'm not that ambitious! I have an onboard Starter on my DLE55 Top Flite FW190 and plan on using one on my DLE55RA Top Flite Zero.

jet22b

Planejaw;
Thanks for the pictures of the fuse!!!
Big Brown will have my bird on the door step by Monday!!! This is going to be my winter build, so this will not be a rush job.
Please keep the updates coming!
Sonny
aka
jet22b

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

I had to move the electric starter motor on the Onboard starter because it interfered with the cowl. on the top. I had to grind off the upper corner on that mount.
now the motor can be mounted Correctly and the Exhaust will exit the cowl correctly. the shot with the cowl shows where the electric motor rubbed the top of the cowl. the other 2 pix shows the silver mount part I made to move it down.

jet22b

drdoom;
Setup looks good!!!
Please keep the updates coming. You are making me think!!!
Sonny
aka
jet22b

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

Fabulous model. Arf's keep getting better. I'll bet it is as much fun to fly as it good looking.
It comes with large robart hinges. Surfaces pre drilled.

dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

That Aluminum part you made, was it a piece of a part of something else, or did you machine it completely from scratch, I noticed that it had other holes in it, like it was used for something else at one time; I see how it works, moving the Starter motor further down, using one of the originally mounting holes and creating a new one, I may change my mind if I can find something similar to use to make a second mounting hole.

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

I machined it from a piece of aluminum that already had the holes in it. I drilled the needed and threaded a 6/32 hole in the back of the red mount. Go for it, you can easily come up with something. The fingers that you save are yours. Stay tuned I'll get another pix in cowl. Model is at work.

dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

Looks good, I may try it! Thanks.

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

If it is Ok with Planejaw I will share this thread with him and others as the build thread... If not Ill do another.

Here is the cowl with the mods to the starter. gear can be easily greased...

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

Here is the DLE 35RA installed. No mod to the airframe so far... But the Muffler is not installed.

jet22b

drdoom;
Now you have done it!!! I will go with the starter setup!!! May I ask, where did you buy the starter system???
Thanks for the info and please let us know if you had to do a mod on the fuse for the muffler!!!
Sonny
aka
jet22b

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

Muffler is only going to take shaving about 1/4 inch off of the bottom side of the motor box. and not all the way across. Ill use a dremel cutoff.

jwrich

My Feedback: (17)

I am interested in getting this aircraft. I have the DLE 35 with the electric starter and I am interested in the flying characteristic. I am at an age that fast movers are beyond my abilities. I hope you do a construction thread.

Thanks

Rich

abelard

How much effect does this starter have on the gross weight & CG?

dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

The Electric Starter adds nose weight, but on some Models where you need nose weight to balance and get the CG where you want it, the Electric Starter is usable nose weight; I have a TF GS FW190 that was tail heavy, the electric starter provided enough weight to balance the plane without having to add any additional weight, like lead, etc.

However, if you use the Electric Starter and it makes the Model Nose heavy and you have to add tail weight, you would have to determine if using the electric starter and the addition of extra weight is worth it or not!

abelard

You have to consider that whether you add tail weight or not...I was asking how much accommodation this particular airplane will need. That starter looks like it weighs over a pound, or about half the weight of a 30cc engine. That suggests a significant increase in wing loading for a model that size.

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

I'll bet that even with the starter, it will be very close to still having the starter battery in the cowl to balance. If not it can be moved back. On 50 years of building I've never had a scale plane wind up nose heavy, ever.

Planejaw

My Feedback: (53)

Finished my ship on Saturday. Approx. 29 hours assembly time (I'm just a little meticulous about things). Everything lined up and assembled with no trouble. Got the first two flighgts on it Sunday. It was a little breezy, but the flight went well. A couple clicks of up elevator trim and right aileron trim. With the "reduced" size of the ailerons (due to having flaps), even at the max throw recommendations in the manual, rolling maneuvers were very slow. I have my radio set up for greater throw at the highest rate setting and that improved things a little. She snaps nicely and with the DLE-30, it has plenty of power.

Weight came out to exactly 15 lbs. CG was spot on with batteries (two 3200 Mah LiFe). Batteries and receiver placed in the recommended location. Decided not to use the Smart-Fly to save a little weight. Found when installing the wing (with struts attached) and sliding it up from the aft fuselage, the ends of the struts (that attach to the fuselage) can cut into the covering as you're sliding the wing forward into place. I made a set of felt "booties" which are rubber-banded onto the two strut ends, allowing the wing to be slid up into place without the strut ends digging into the sides of the fuselage covering. Then, just remove the little booties and bolt-up the struts. Tried to adjust the interplane struts a little, but the threaded rods were pretty well painted and stuck in the struts, so no real adjustment available there. I may order another set this fall and see if I can get them lined up a little better.

As for landings, she was a little bouncy on the grass, mainly due to a pretty stiff aluminum landing gear. The flaps really help to slow her down, but didn't get too many landings in as the winds were starting to pick up to 10+ as the afternoon wore on.

I'll get a few more photos posted later this week.

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

Very nice review. Thanks for all of the valuable heads up info.

jwrich

My Feedback: (17)

DrDoom, could you post pictures of your finished engine/starter mounting and the lay out of the ing & batteries. I think I will order this plane.

Thanks
Rich

Planejaw

My Feedback: (53)

BTW, when making turns, be sure to add plenty of rudder in the direction of the turn, as there is a pronounced slip to the inside of the turn if rudder is not used.