cfossa

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Hi Guys,

I was looking on Tower Hobbies today and saw that the GP Spacewalker has been discontinued!
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXJ640&P=ML

I built one of these last summer, and I'm sure glad now! I guess I'll have to be a bit careful with it now that it is an endangered species.

Anyway, I think this is a great plane. Too bad they are discontinued.

Carl

STG

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One of the best planes I have ever had the pleasure of flying. Just sold mine last Friday--went to a good home.

Meesh

My Feedback: (135)

I flew mine for the first time on Saturday. I had a dozen of the most relaxing flights of my life. Flies very scale like at half throttle with a Saito 90 Twin.

It's an absolute shame that this has been discontinued! []

swooper

Really, I think you have to hand it to GreatPlanes for running the ARF kit as long as they did. It appealed strongly to only a very limited number of modelers. Their Tiger Moth is also majestic and slow, but lacks the aerobatic capability of the Spacewalker's semisymmetrical wing. I flew the Spacewalker for at least five years and it gave more pleasure than any other model I've had. Ah well, another great model has run its course.

cfossa

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I just ordered a spare cowl and wing tips to keep mine flying a bit longer :-)

Carl

Bruno Stachel

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I've just started flying my Spacewalker in ernest this spring. Saturday I flew my usual routine with simple loops, rolls, cubans, hammer heads, etc. (I love the way she hangs on her back halfway through a loop, forcing you to fly her all the way through.) There is an elderly gentleman who joined our club, and is learning to fly RC for the first time. His wife greeted me after a flight and said, "Thank you for such a pretty flight". Until then, I had thought about selling or trading my Spacewalker. I think I'll keep her now. There is something about her that keeps me going. She's a real eye catcher at the field. Sorry to see her discontinued. I'll probably need to order an extra cowl just in case. Might have to get the Sig kit version too.

RCFlyerNYC

First they discontinue the fabric covered Cub and now the Space Walker. After this weekend at the field I get the feeling this hobby is turning into "foamie hell"
I'm seeing less and less scale planes and more and more of these foam profile planes.
Whats a Golden Age scale freak like me supposed to do?
Jeff

Meesh

My Feedback: (135)

Jeff,

I hear you.I get a kick out of some guy with a Foamie with a Brushless servo and 24"span of flat styrofoam (no airfoil) telling me how good his plane "flies".

Bob

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

<<..."foamie hell"...>>

Man, I hear you. I am SO tired of all these steenkin' park flyers; the catalogs-disguised-as-magazines are nothing but these things lately; heck, even RC Report has succumbed, in part, to this infestation.

I understand that the vendors are in business to make money. I understand that these things are hot sellers. And I understand the need to maximize profits; up to a point. But it seems to me that The Empire and, to a lesser extent, Horizon, are slowly but surely moving away from traditional main-stream models, in effect abandoning those of us who prefer that genre.

Sure, this foamie crap is selling as fast as they can be produced; right now. What about five years from now?

I dunno; perhaps I'm just too resistant to change abd set in my ways. I tried electrics, was underwhelmed, and have no desire to try it again. Yes, I know the discipline has improved greatly since then. But to get a glow-comparable power set-up is vey expensive, between li-po/whatever batteries and the chargers they require. I have a substantial investment in two Alpha 4s, which won't handle these new batteries. I cannot see casting them aside just yet.

I had an interesting conversation with Dave Shadel about this at Toledo. He is flying some electric stuff now, and had very good things to say about it. His word is good enough for me, so perhaps one day I'll look into it again.

But it will be in a real model airplane; not a few pieces of ice chest foam glued together with graphics slapped on...

rcuser002

My Feedback: (12)

Meesh aka Bob,

I must give credit where credit is due!!

I was browsing thru some threads about this and and that and came across the picture of you and your GP Spacewalker.

It was love at 1st site (no...... not about you-------but you're plane) I was bitten ,,,,big time .........then I read about it being discontinued and said #$%^ where can I find one of these discontinued 1/4 giants.

To make a looong story short... I found one last week, NIB for a good price including shipping and it arrived today!!!!!!!!.....I'm on my way home in a few minutes and can't wait to see the puppy.

Not to mention....... I found out about the inherent tail heavy tendency associated with the specific GP SW & the balooning problem that follows the 1.20 power engine choice and decided on another dicontinued choice of power---the ys 91.

I found one of those too. Almost NIB.

Thankx for the inspirational pix and post.

I'm a happy pilot!!!

Bob G aka root

Meesh

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Thanks Bob!

Im happy that my airplane made such an impression on you!

It has become my "favorite flyer!"

Bob

rcuser002

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UPS delivered the plane in one piece and I have to say WOW what a monokote job----not one wrinkle ---clever packing by the way

I've never dreamed of personally owning --putting together and FLYING a plane this BIG.

I'm overjoyed to be overwhelmed!!!

root

p.s. I'm glad I went with the YS91 for the extra power if I need it.

Meesh

My Feedback: (135)

Congratulations Root!

It is a very relaxing plabe to fly but it doesn't like crosswinds on aproaches.

My very first landing with this plane was a beautifully greased 3- pointer. My next 11 landings on that day were exactly the same. You will NEVER need all the power of that YS 91.

Good luck with it.

Bob

rcuser002

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What do you estimate in miles per hour are the slowest landings you can make without fear of a tip stall?

How's about mph as far as low fly bys go??

as a newbie i have noticed most of the guys in my club (JCRCC) come in pretty fast for landings or at least it seems that way

Bob G

Meesh

My Feedback: (135)

Bob I would estimate that it will continue to fly at 10-15 MPH.

I've never had it stall or snap. And for that matter, it has never ground looped. It has very gentle manners.

Bob

blk96gt

Gotta love those brushless servos!?!? If you're going to talk down on something at least do it right.

I will never understand why so many ignorant people look down on profile foamies? Yeah, they don't look real, but they are fun, easy to fix, and not very expensive. It is also a good way of getting started in the hobby. Instead of looking down at these people, offer to let them fly one of your glow planes with a buddy cord. A guy at my field let me fly his SPAD, and after that I was sold on glow. I now have a GP Cap and a SPAD DPS. Howevever, I still fly my profile 3-d foamy every chance I get. I will tell you right now that I am a better flier because of the foamy then I am from the Cap or SPAD. But let me guess, you probably don't like SPAD's either?

Meesh

My Feedback: (135)

FYI, in the motion control industry, in which I have worked for 28 plus years, a Brushless Motor is referred to as "Brushless Servo" or a "Brushless Servo Motor". Either term is considered correct. Yes, you are correct in assuming that I don't like flat wing foamies and I don't like "Flying Signs" or "Spads" with flat wings.

If you'll re-read my post you'll notice that I made the distinction of FLAT WING FOAMIES not actually flying. Foamies with airfoils DO FLY by virtue of the lift created by the air passing over their airfoil shaped wings.

Any flat wing object that remains suspended in the air because of the size of the motor that is mounted on it does not fly. Have you ever seen a full scale airplane hang on its' prop indefinitely?

Regards
Bob

blk96gt

My SPAD doesn't have a flat wing, it's got a semi-semetrical airfoil.

I just don't understand why you people can't just accept the flat-winged profile foamy trend. It has brought more people into the hobby, and introduced many people, including myself, to glow planes.

BTW, didn't know that about the servos. Learn something new everyday.

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

Strictly speaking, a flat plate is an airfoil. Like a symmetrical wing, it generates no lift at 0deg AoA. So you might say it is a sym. airfoil with near 0% thickness.

Really though, a lot of folks are flying these foamies to practice below stall 3D stunts, for most of which the airfoil shape matters next to none. For that, the flat plate wing works just as well as any, as the inefficiency (i.e. high drag) matters little at very low forward speeds.

It ain't my cup of tea, either, but more power to those who enjoys it. For that matter, I don't much more care for helis, either, but I'am not about to badmouth the heli-boys. They all bring $$$ into the RC hobbies, and that is always a good thing.

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

BTW, what da heck does foamies have to do with the GP Spacewalker anyhow?

root, glad you liked the SW. The YS .91 will be perfect for it. Don't take the balancing for granted though. I think you still need to be careful with it. Plan on placing most components (batt, servos, etc.) as far forward as possible. The YS is a bit heavier than most .91 4strokes, but it isn't heavy enough to give you a free reign to put the radio gear where-ever you want. Good luck.

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

Not exactly. In the parlance of RC motors, "brushless motor" simply denotes an AC motor, whereas a brushed motor is a DC motor. I really dislike the terms "brushless" and "brushed" terms, as they are confusing and don't really describe the fundamentals of the motor.

A servo motor can be either AC or DC, and is usually comprised of the drive section and the resolver/encoder. The term "servo" simply means the motor is capable of feedback position control. A good exmaple of servo motor are those used in CNC machines. The electric motors used to power RC airplanes, either brushed or brushless, are definitely NOT servo motors.

Meesh

My Feedback: (135)

Volfy,

Since I've been speaking in terms of "Brushless Servo Motors for industrial robotics applications (including CNC), that is is where I was coming from. Any Brushless DC motor can be turned into a Brushless servo motor by adding a feedback device. In our business we use Laser Interferometers as feedback devices with resolutions down to the 1-10 nanometer level, our linear bearings are usually Air Bearings and our Brushless DC Servo motors are linear not rotary.

And anyway, what the h*ll does Brushless motors have to do with this Spacewalker??

Planes are a lot like motorcycles, as long as you're riding you are part of the Brotherhood. I wasn't knocking anyone.

Lets talk Spacewalkers!

Bob

rcuser002

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This thread has NOTHING to do with the hands on "spad" threads................. so please don't CONTAMINATE it with provoked responses against something that this thread DOES NOT support...
no spam please----------------------------

rcuser002

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aarggghhhhhh

rcuser002

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MEESH--

What do you think the top speed would be at level flight with a YS 91 FZ at wide open throttle??

Don't laugh --I know it's NOT the real thing but it's all I have to go by........I'm coming in at around at least 20 MPH for a non-tip stall on my personally tweeked AeroflyPro Deluxe Simulator. Pretty close to your estimates??

Anybody else wnt to chime in with their opinions??? ---PLEASE feel free to do so ... as I'm trying to get the flight sim to realisticly help as much as possible so's I and all the other newbie pilots don't trash their "sweethearts" because of "over-controlling" disease!

root