*JCB*

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4000686798:

Would you kindly give a measurement of the width of the fuse just fore and aft of the wing? I am going to get some aluminum landing gear to mount the floats and i need these measurements to buy the best-fitting set.

Thanks!!!

grassroots

The measurements are about 4-7/8 inches edge to edge. There is about a 1/2 inch radius up front, and 1/8 to 3/16 in back. Hope this helps please check the pictures. I also included two pictures of the area inside in front/behind the wing for hardwood mounts.

*JCB*

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PERFECT!! thank you so much!!

What are those two hard-wood blocks on forward side of the wing, just inside of the wing dowel holes??

grassroots

Those are for the screws that hold the fuel tank floor in place.

Or if your going electric the motor battery floor.

sevans16

I just picked mine up at my LHS last saturday. I am going to put the OS 56FS-a in her. I am hoping to have her flying this coming Sun. Though it has been windy around here the last few days.

*JCB*

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Finished the floats, now i just need the plane!! Each float weighs 14oz and installation takes about 6oz of hardware. So AUW of the floats is going to be about 2lbs and some change...

sevans16: have you run that motor yet? If so, how do you like it? I would have a hard time justifying paying that much money for an engine if it didn't perform all that well. For that price a YS 63 could be had, which is a real monster of an engine. I have seen the OS 56 in person and wasn't terribly impressed...

sevans16

No I have not run it. I just bought it with the plane. I already have two of the 81's for my TF B-25 arf. So I figured what the hey. I have always been an OS man. I am always willing to try out the new stuff.

*JCB*

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you are a better man than I!! The only loyalty I have is to my pocketbook (for the most part) [sm=shades_smile.gif]

*JCB*

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Has anybody flown this thing yet???

sevans16

I got mine in the air today. I flew it with the brand new OS 56FS-a .
I ran the engine up for about 10 mins, the set it a little rich and off to the air. It is a wonderful engine. It has a low smooth idle with only 2 tanks through it. It seems to fly forever on the tank provided. I rarely went over half throttle(still running very rich) and I flew it for about 10 mins with over a half tank left.
The plane flew great. The flaps are really cool but not needed. I need to program in some mixing between the ailerons and elevator. The plane goes in a serious climb when you give it aileron. Other than that it was very smooth and predictable. Quick build!!!.

sevans16

Oh yeah, balance was right on. I installed a 4 cell 2000 NiMh rx battery pack and the FASST rx in the tray provided.

H5606

For anybody that has flown both the GP Cherokee and the Pacific Aeromodel Knockabout - do they have similar flying qualities?

*JCB*

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sounds good sevans16!! Do you think it will handle 2lbs worth of floats??

sevans16

Humm 2lbs?? Yeah for scale like flight it should be fine and the flaps will help quite a bit with landings. I might lean towards a little more power?? Maybe a 55AX?

sevans16

OK, got some more time on her this weekend. Had about 1hr in the air. The thing barely crawls with full flaps and is very stable.
I have about a 1/2 gallon through my OS 56 FS Alpha now and the idle is around 2800 and full throttle tach reading of 10,100 RPM with 15% CP and 13x6 APC sport prop.

*JCB*

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Well, my Cherokee shipped today!! I will probably put some land flights on it before I bolt on the floats and fly it like that. I was even thinking about adding some ballast to the plane when it is on wheels to see how it would do with the extra weight of the floats...we'll see how it goes. Should be fun!

testfly

Going Electric with mine. It came today and a quick look says it was worth every penny it cost me.
I am wanting to use a 3 cell 11.1 5000mah lipo (I have 10 of them). Anyone know of a ESC / motor / prop
setup that I can get to be able to get in the air off grass using the 3 cell battery? I also have 10 3 cell 2170mah.

I just don't want to have to spend more on batteries. So if I can I want to use what I have.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

*JCB*

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[link=http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXLWV3&P=7]http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXLWV3&P=7[/link]

Here is the electric motor that Great Planes recommends. Pair it up the the 60 amp ESC. I'm not sure that a 3s battery would be enough for this plane...

I suppose you could try the 1000kv motor to get a little more RPM out of the 3s batteries, but then you would have to use a smaller prop. Looking at the manual for this motor, it looks like it will spin a prop plenty big for this plane

*JCB*

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Got the Cherokee in the mail today...

this is a real good lookin' bird and it should look even better on floats! A couple of things I noticed are (1) the plane seems a bit hefty, but people are saying it doesn't fly like it and (2) this plane is obviously geared toward the RTF generation as pretty much everything is done for you. The only gluing required is for the servo mounts and everything else is bolted or screwed in. I am by no means complaining, I am actually thankful for this as I was not looking to spend a bunch of time assembling a plane.

4000686798: have you had a chance to fly yours yet??

ChuckW

Got mine finished this evening. It does seem a bit on the heavy side but I haven't weighed it to know for sure. It balanced right at the recommended spot without adding any weight or shifting stuff around.

Arceenut

I had the GP kit built Cherokee back around 1980. It finally met its demise in the hands of my son doing stunts too close to the ground. I recently (2005) built another from the original plans and have 'flown the pants off it' for two years and is still going strong. (Didn't have pants on it in the first place.) Powered by OS52FS, 11/7 APC, 15% synthetic. The plane feels 'hefty' but doesn't fly like it. Full flap landings are a breeze, Does loops, rolls, stall turns, inverted flight, spins without complaint, Will not vertical forever but not too shabby. One of my favorite sport planes.

ChuckW

Hey everyone. I just wanted to share my experience with this plane. I flew it for the first time and the last time this morning.

The flight was going very well. The plane flew excellent. When I was on the downwind leg of the landing approach though, the elevator quit working and it went in. The plane was completely destroyed. Hopefully I can salvage the engine, servos and receiver.

I studied the wreckage thinking it was a receiver or electrical problem then I noticed the stab and fin were perfectly intact but separated from the fuse. Two of the screws were missing but one was still in the fin fairing. This screw was undamaged, not bent, not broken, nothing. The blind nuts in the fuse looked intact as well. The likely cause of the crash was that the tail section came loose.

I used blue locktite on the screws and made sure they were tight before the flight. There was no unusual vibration. I have a theory as to how they came loose. The stab center is balsa and has no metal inserts or anything in the holes where the screws pass through for support. My suspicion is that the balsa in the stab compressed when the screws were tightened (you can see this) and the normal flexing in flight made the problem worse and worked the screws loose.

This is a beautiful, nice flying plane. I am definitely not trying to imply low quality, slam Great Planes or anything of that nature (their stuff is some of the best available in my opinion). In fact, my overall impression of the plane is very, very good. I just want to pass along the information so others can think about using epoxy on their tail pieces and possibly save a really nice airplane.

*JCB*

My Feedback: (9)

oh man, what a bummer! Sorry to hear about the loss, that's really gotta hurt!

help us understand a little more as to what happened. Are you saying that you think the horizontal stab compressed a little under the pressure of tightening the three screws? The balsa block on the bottom of the vertical stab has some washers sandwiched in between itself and the plywood base, so i'm assuming you are not talking about that.

Mine isn't fully assembled yet and any more info would be greatly appreciated. A big part of the reason i got this plane was the bolt-on tail section [sm=what_smile.gif]

sevans16

I noticed this when bolting on the rear stab. I removed the bolts and put a couple of drops of CA in the whole before final assembly. I also stripped some covering and put 30min epoxy on both sides of the horizontal stab, because I am paranoid and never intend to pull it apart.

ChuckW

It is the horizontal stab that I think compressed. There is no sort of support in it like on the vertical stab. The screws just worked loose and fell out, even with the blue locktite. I would recommend stripping the covering on all the contact areas and using a little epoxy. The screws will hold everything in place well while it cures. I'm going out here in a few minutes to examine it some more and double check everything I did against the instructions just to be sure I didn't make some sort of idiot mistake when assembling it.