bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

I ordered a Thunder Tiger Giles 202 EP Profile after reading the review in the Jan '06 issue of Backyard Flyer. The ARF is really high quality and very, very easy to build. I put the plane together while watching a DVD one evening, and I flew it the next day. The plane was less than forty bucks plus shipping, but the box included the airframe, 370 brushed motor and 6:1 gearbox, 11x8 prop, velcro, tape, and epoxy! You need little more than the space required to put this thing together.

The landing gear is much higher quality than other flat foam planes I've seen. It will slow down gently enough for a novice to fly indoors, but is fully capable of 3D aerobatics. I got a lot of compliments about the plane when I took it to an indoor flying session. The other club members thought it looked great, the pre-printed graphics were vibrant, and the plane flew terrific. I'm flying it with 3 GWS Pico servos, a GWS RP4II receiver, an Electrifly C-12 ESC, and an Electrifly 11.1V 640ma 15C LiPo. The brushed motor is really powerful with this setup at full throttle, I can only imagine how it would fly with a brushless setup!

I had to do some hunting around to find this ARF, but it was well worth it! There is a Christen Eagle Bipe EP Profile and an Expo 3D EP Profile in the same series. I'd love to hear from anyone else who's flown any of these planes. I bought mine for indoor flying while the midwest is in a deep freeze, so any outdoor experience with one of these ARFs would be of interest to me.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

Got another chance to fly indoors today, and I managed to put the Giles 202
EP Profile to the test. I was flying around for a while and getting
comfortable when I decided to try to fly inverted for a while. I rolled the
plane over and pulled back on the elevator like a dumbass, which resulted in
an immediate "splat!"

The plane hit squarely on the nose, doing (surprisingly) almost no damage at
all. Thunder Tiger has the fuselage nicely reinforced at the nose and it
really saved me today! I did manage to snap the drive shaft. When I came
home I ordered a couple of them as they're only about five bucks. I figured
I may as well get an extra one.

The plane is none the worse for my clumsiness, and changing out the drive
shaft will take but a few turns of a phillips head screwdriver when the
spares arrive. I'm looking forward to doing plenty more flying with my
Giles 202 EP soon. Will keep you posted as to my progress and whatever
further destruction I manage to create.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

We had an unusually warm and calm day for late December here in Nebraska
today. I decided to take full advantage of it by hauling my TT Giles 202 EP
Profile out to the flying field along with another electric plane I have.
I've never flown the Giles 202 EP Profile outside before, and I was looking
forward to opening it up without walls and a ceiling to contend with!

The afternoon proved to be quite rewarding. It was almost dead calm at my
home when I got in the car, but our flying field is on top of a hill by a
lake a few miles northwest of where I live. When I got to the field and
unloaded my gear, the wind was blowing about 5 to 10 mph out of the south.
The review of the TT Giles 202 EP Profile in the Jan '06 issue of Backyard
Flyer said that the plane handled moderate wind just fine, so I decided to
go ahead and give it a shot. I managed to knock the wheel pant off of the
right side of the landing gear while flying indoors. I'd glued it back on
twice already, and I figured it wouldn't survive the flight.

We have an asphalt runway at Hawk field ( http://www.omahawks.org ), so I
just plugged in the battery, armed the ESC by pushing up throttle then down
throttle, and setting the Giles on the runway pointed into the wind. As
always, the plane rolled smoothly along on it's excellent landing gear
before jumping up into the air. The wind helped the Giles climb quickly and
I finally got a chance to really give it the juice for the first time while
actually flying.

The brushed 370 speed motor pulled the Giles through the air with terrific
speed. It was quite apparent that the stock motor included with the plane
was more than enough for 3D aerobatics when mated to an 11.1V LiPo pack.
The plane rolled and tumbled and spun through seemingly impossible
positions, then quickly and without hesitation it would level out and pull
itself out of any angle when I corrected the stick inputs.

I thought to myself that the wind might actually be more fun than if the day
had remained as calm as I was expecting it to stay. My initial impression
was that I was flying some kind of crazy stringless high-tech stunt kite that would
whirl and tumble, only to right itself and fly in smooth and predictable
ovals like a glow plane once I changed my radio inputs. The plane looked as
good as it flew, with the bright, vibrant colors keeping the plane easy to
see as I took it higher and further than flying indoors had previously
allowed me.

I'm no expert at 3D flight, or even particularly adept at traditional
aerobatics. I wasn't really practicing any specific stunt or manuver. I
simply stood next to the runway and blasted the plane full throttle into the
wind while making it roll and tumble in ways I've never dared try with my
glow planes. When I'd get far enough upwind to make orientation recognition
a bit of a challenge, then whip the plane around and streak it downwind of
me only to repeat the cycle.

Alas, a 640ma LiPo pack can only provide so much entertainment. The BEC on
the ESC kicked on and the Giles 202 EP Profile fell into a steep but
managable glide. I cranked the elevator control back just before the Giles
touched down and feathered it into a not-quite-perfect landing. The already
huge grin on my face spread ever-so-slighty further as I walked up to pick
up the plane and discovered that the right wheel pant was still solidly
glued in place. It was great fun flying outdoors after having been stuck inside for
the last month or so enduring single digit temperatures!

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

I got the chance to take the TT Giles 202 EP Profile back inside today. Our flying area was cut in half by a large net protecting us from soccer balls and the soccer players from stray planes and helicopters. My confidence with flying the Giles EP indoors is growing; a few weeks ago I'd have been more nervous about the tight flying area, but today I was feeling confident and just plain glad to be flying.

I fired up my Futaba 7CAP and plugged in the LiPo battery, attaching it squarely to the velcro on the plane's fuselage while centering on the marks I made when balancing it. A quick up then down on the throttle stick armed the ESC and I was ready to go. The plane rolled out in front of me on the astroturf and smoothly sped up to takeoff speed as I advanced the throttle. At about 1/3 throttle, the Giles 202 EP has enough power to fly smoothly around the indoor soccer field while still maintaining good control.

The plane was flying ovals for me easily. I had done a little bit of extra trimming when I flew it outdoors last week, taking out a bit of extra "up" from the elevator resulted in smoother flying both outdoors and indoors. I was spending less time trying to keep the plane from "porpoising" and more time just enjoying watching the plane fly where I pointed it. Just having the elevator trim off a little bit had left me fighting to keep the plane off the ceiling a couple of weeks ago, now the plane was smooth and steady.

I was doing so well with simply flying ovals that I decided to get cocky and see if I could replicate some of my rolls and loops from my outdoor flights the previous week. Should I have known better? Probably, but let's just say that loops and rolls are a tough proposition when you're flying around indoors at 1/3 throttle. I tried to roll the plane over inverted and continue flying my oval pattern, but as slowly as I was flying there was a much bigger difference between "battery side up" and "battery side down" than I'd expected.

The oval continued through about one quarter of its track when the plane flipped out of its inverted attitude unexpectedly and plopped toward the ground. I might have pulled out of the stall if I'd been quicker on the throttle, but my glow instincts kicked in and I cut the power instead while cranking back on the elevator stick. My first trainer was a Hobbico
Nexstar, and I think it often flew better with the engine off than it did under power. Well the Giles 202 EP just plunked down onto the astroturf, right side up, and none the worse for my clumsy handling.

A couple of the guys standing near me let out small but audible gasps like they always do when one of us crashes a plane, but I just chuckled and took the Giles EP back up from where it had landed. I took another couple of laps in my oval pattern to regain my courage before trying an aileron roll. What can I say? I usually learn my lesson after the first mistake, but I hadn't done any harm on my last attempt, so I decided to mess around some more. I gained a bit of additional altitude and began rolling the plane over, but I had the throttle too low and the plane fell out of the roll and rushed toward the astro turf once again.

This time the plane didn't just plop down, it bounced! It landed right side up again, but from the higher altitude, the wheel pants came flying off the landing gear shooting straight off in both directions! I got more gasps from the peanut gallery, and this time I thought I might have actually done some damage. As I walked out toward where the plane sat though, I realized that it was sitting there waiting to take off just as it had been after my previous flop. I powered it up and took it around again.

Bouncing it hard twice had done nothing to affect the smooth, stable slow flying characteristics of the Giles EP. I took a few more laps, then brought it in for a closer look. I brought the plane in and rolled it up to where I was standing and set my radio down. I walked out and picked up the foam wheel pants from where they lay. The wheel pants were ready to be glued back on and all of my bouncing had simply crinkled a little bit more of the nose foam where it had pinched in a bit from my nose-in two weeks previously. This time I didn't have a broken drive shaft to contend with, so I counted my blessings as I admired my tough little foam wonder plane.

I stood and watched a few of the other guys fly for a while. For some reason, not too many of the other guys like flying at the same time I'm bouncing my plane around the soccer field. I wonder why? I still had some juice left in the battery pack, and I wanted to end my indoor flying session on a good note. A short while later, a couple of the guys brought their planes down and I launched the Giles 202 EP for another flight.

I'd learned my lesson. I decided I'd wait for some additional nice weather and I'd practice the fancy flying at higher speed when I didn't have a ceiling to worry about. I've mentioned before that I'm no expert when it comes to aerobatics, but I'll get there eventually. I spent a good five minutes lapping our half of the soccer center ( http://www.millardstar.com/center/ ) and just enjoying some smooth, level flying.

A couple of guys cringed a bit, thinking I was getting too close the net that separated us from the soccer players. The plane really was handling nicely though, and I felt like I had good control as I approached the net then threw it into its turn. I flew out the rest of the battery's charge without any more incidents, when the BEC finally kicked in. The motor wound down and I cranked up on the elevator to bring the Giles EP down with one last gentle "plop." I had just enough juice left to taxi the plane over to where I was standing.

I know the rest of the guys probably don't believe me, but I really can fly without crashing if I try really hard! My less-than-gentle flying techniques have barely made a dent on my tough little Thunder Tiger Giles EP Profile. I have a bit of a crinkle in the nose to show for my mistakes, but the plane is still looking and flying great! I'm also getting better at handling the plane smoothly indoors. My hope is that, in a few more weeks, the rest of the guys from our club that fly indoors ( http://www.performanceflyers.com ) will feel safe enough with me flying near them that they won't wear helmets anymore!