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Great Planes Escapade .40 ARF

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Great Planes Escapade .40 ARF

Old 04-01-2015, 07:41 PM
  #1751  
Sloviper
 
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I just maidened mine this week with saito 65 and it came out nose heavy. That was on the cg by the manual and there isnt much room to move the battery around so i will have to add some weight to the tail.
make sure you do a build thread for the 30 cc. I was eyeballing it but than decided to get the mxsr 30 cc instead.
Old 04-02-2015, 02:43 AM
  #1752  
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Originally Posted by vicrider
I just bought an escapade .40
This is one of my go to plane now. They are cheap $100 and I have gone thru a couple of them. This is the fastest ARF there is to assemble too.

I just use the tail screws to hold and align, then glue with some epoxy. Put battery under fuel tank. I also glue the wings together. Aluminum Spinner and CG comes in about right, they seem to fly a little nose heavy with a 46. I use Sullivan tail wheel. The plane is pretty well behaved but does have a tendancy to come in little hot on landings. Needs rudder on roll. Need good amount of elevator to get slow down for landing.

Hope that helps.
Old 04-02-2015, 01:50 PM
  #1753  
vicrider
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I just finished it. Maybe some time this weekend i'll get it in the air. It Still came out slightly tail heavy, If it had one of the ax motors instead of the .40 fp it would be the other way around. Took just a 1/2 ounce to balance it. It came out at 4lbs 11oz which is 5 oz's under the listed weight, so im good with that. Should be fun.
Old 04-02-2015, 06:37 PM
  #1754  
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There's no way I could do an ARF like this in one day.
Old 04-02-2015, 07:00 PM
  #1755  
vicrider
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Originally Posted by Tom Nied
There's no way I could do an ARF like this in one day.
There really wasn't much to it. But things go a lot quicker when the wife goes on a business trip.
Old 04-02-2015, 07:12 PM
  #1756  
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Amen to that. Now I understand.
Old 04-02-2015, 07:30 PM
  #1757  
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The 40FP is a very light engine and I think you will still end up using some weight up front . But they run well and with your plan to keep it light I think you will be pleased.
Old 04-02-2015, 10:21 PM
  #1758  
vicrider
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Originally Posted by jeffie8696
The 40FP is a very light engine and I think you will still end up using some weight up front . But they run well and with your plan to keep it light I think you will be pleased.
Your right, I had to add a 1/2 ounce, all the weight savings I did behind the CG and getting that battery behind the firewall paid off. It wont be a speed demon but it should be fun.
Old 04-03-2015, 05:38 PM
  #1759  
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The 40FP is a good powerful easy running engine with good gas mileage and should pull it fine if not a speed demon. Good prop selection is a must , I would take a handful of various props and try each to see what flies it the way you want.
Old 04-03-2015, 06:37 PM
  #1760  
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I think the first fp motor I had was a .35 fp and that was around 1985 and used it on a Hots. I have had a few .40fp's ( Don't know how long I have had this one) and have found eather a 10x6 or 11x5 works well and your right they are very easy running motors.
Old 04-10-2015, 01:38 PM
  #1761  
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Finally had its first flight. Flew really well, except it seemed to behave as if its tail heavy with a really sensitive elevator. The .40 fp provided more then enough power, no speed deamon for sure but not bad. It slows down just fine for landing, dosent land hot at all. So far I like it, I will balance it again and fly it so more.
Old 04-10-2015, 07:38 PM
  #1762  
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Make sure the ailerons are not both slightly up too
Old 11-18-2015, 03:44 PM
  #1763  
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Originally Posted by ciscovet
I get no snap with full elevator. I did increase the elevator throw by moving up one hole on the clevis. Everyone at the field loves that whistle. My canopy lso flew off. I was taping it one but the ended drilling a screw through a servo horn and using it as a lock to keep the canopy in place. Have not had a problem since
By chance do you have any pics of what you did with the servo horn to lock the canopy?
Old 01-03-2016, 11:28 PM
  #1764  
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Took me 3 days to re read and get through all 1763 posts. Next I'll start studying the manual.
Old 01-04-2016, 08:40 AM
  #1765  
jeffie8696
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It boils down to. Glue the tail on not just bolt, dont overpower it a 46 is plenty, dont fly too fast it wants to flutter and break. The landing gear mount is like all other ARFs a little weak, standard servos work fine so no need for heavy expensive ones. Overall a good value.
Old 01-04-2016, 02:08 PM
  #1766  
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Mine was one of the earlier Escapade ARFs available back in 2009. I might check the hinges and elevator joiner. Never liked those wing indexing tabs, so will check those and the plywood hole they index into. Definitely going to glue the wing together. I got a van and transporting the wing whole sounds better to me. I pretty sure I'm going to balance at 72mm. That's only a third of an inch. My experience with quite a few Great Planes, Tower, Hobbico arfs, they are way too conservative and I do believe it will land and takeoff better with no ill affects because of the rearward Center of Gravity from the manual. Will open the tank and check the plumbing. Also will address the canopy that likes to eject. Great Planes Notice #2 suggests what can be done to prevent it.

The reason I'm pulling my new and unassembled Escapade out of the closet is because, I could fix my beater old Avistar that I turned into a "ground loop queen" that needs to be fixed again, or I could have a new airplane that I have everything I need to assemble. Even the Magnum XLS .46 coming out of the Avistar is nicely broken in, starts and runs great, would be better used in the Escapade.

Last edited by Tom Nied; 01-04-2016 at 04:15 PM. Reason: spelling, grammar, clarification
Old 01-04-2016, 05:01 PM
  #1767  
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I had one about 5 years ago. I ran a GMS2000-47 on it. I never had a problem with flutter at the tail feathers...but I DID decide to epoxy the entire tail section after the nuts underneath coming loose multiple times. Jeffie is right. Mine ran plenty fast using the .47. And I did end up replacing the landing gear...but part of that was due to my poor landing skills. I have to be honest. Other than that .....it's a kick ass plane!
Old 01-13-2016, 08:08 PM
  #1768  
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So as you can probably imagine, that I'm going over the assembly very close. I've been following this plane/thread since 2009. I've recently re read this whole forum, so I'm up on all that has been mentioned about this plane. One thing I've noticed that I don't like is how there is a small amount of slop (gap) between the pin on the clevis and the control horns for the ailerons. It's not much, but all previous planes I've built, I've minimized this as much as possible. The nylon parts are not even GP (Great Planes) manufacture. Probably Chinese origin hardware. Going to have to seriously think about how I'm going to address this small problem. Probably same problem in the tail.
Old 01-14-2016, 09:23 AM
  #1769  
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ARF hardware in my opinion is all substandard regardless of manufacture. I use what I can and replace what isnt acceptable with quality hardware. It is all made to a price point after all.
Old 01-14-2016, 11:45 AM
  #1770  
Atitagain
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Originally Posted by Tom Nied
So as you can probably imagine, that I'm going over the assembly very close. I've been following this plane/thread since 2009. I've recently re read this whole forum, so I'm up on all that has been mentioned about this plane. One thing I've noticed that I don't like is how there is a small amount of slop (gap) between the pin on the clevis and the control horns for the ailerons. It's not much, but all previous planes I've built, I've minimized this as much as possible. The nylon parts are not even GP (Great Planes) manufacture. Probably Chinese origin hardware. Going to have to seriously think about how I'm going to address this small problem. Probably same problem in the tail.

Time to visit DuBro for some good clevises and maybe even the horns. Depends on your pocket book and your patience.
Old 01-18-2016, 06:01 PM
  #1771  
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Well while picking up a new receiver at the LHS, I found that for $7.20, I could replace the horns and clevis. It was a no brainer. I was going to try to use the arf kit horns and clevis using the trick of filling the holes in the horns with CA, but at that price, I just grabbed the DuBro replacements.

So while getting the wing ready to epoxy it together, I ran into something that I found disturbing. Behind the wing joiner tube that connects the two wing halves there is a dowel pin that prevents the wing halves from turning against each other. Mine was not allowing for the two halves to match. Since I was gluing the wing together anyway, I just Dremeled the hole to allow me to glue the two halves together without one being higher than the other. Surprised I ran into this anomaly. Heads up to anyone who is currently putting one together.
Old 02-12-2016, 05:22 PM
  #1772  
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Wow this was a long thread to read. A lot of great information. I had no idea the plane had been around so long. I bought a Escapade 40 to work on in the winter and have started it. I epoxied the tail on, epoxied the inside where the landing gear goes. Put some CA in the elevator torque rod. Bought a Sullivan tail wheel setup. They seemed like the most important improvements. It's been fun so far.
Old 02-12-2016, 07:43 PM
  #1773  
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oldsneakers, I'm just finishing mine up. One thing I noticed is that in the manual they have you glue the battery/tank floor in. I intially thought that I would just spot glue it in but noticed that by really glueing it in to the formers, it will add extra strength to the wing mount, landing gear mount, and firewall former. It's not a hard assembly once you get things sorted out. I like to fuel proof the inside and add some epoxy to critical areas. .
Old 02-12-2016, 08:47 PM
  #1774  
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You guys will LOVE the way it flies!!!!
Old 02-14-2016, 03:27 AM
  #1775  
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Thanks Tom Nied. I will glue that part in good. That makes sense. I have the wing done. I glued the two halves together. Going against most advice on this thread, I'm going to try and fit an OS 61 in the plane. I did that with my GP SuperSportster 40 and it worked out good. I just had to move the battery to the rear to get it to balance right.

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