Mpizpilot

My Feedback: (45)

And for those questioning the DLE 20 or 30, I say go with the 20. Mine has the 30 in it and for the first time in my life I can say its too much power. Now if this were a extra or something along those line it'd be fine, but mine has more then unlimited vertical. I can torque roll this thing like my 3d birds and punch out into fast vertical climb. I've got another in the box, and when I build that one it will get a 20 cc.

RCBOATMANIAC

I had the same problem you are having, but I fixed mine by taking painters tape and going around the landing gear close to the fuselage. Once I had that done I took the landing gear off and mixed up some 30 min epoxy with micro ballons and filled the cavity to the top edge of the tape. Worked like a charm!!

capt_todd

I now know that the problem is that the "main landing gear" piece (as listed in the manual) is glued wrong at the factory. They glued the fiberglass triangle shaped pieces too low which makes a bigger gap than can be filled with the supplied fiberglass "landing gear fairings". They should have been glued alot closer to the screws that hold the landing gear on the fuselage. I hope this helps someone else. I will be calling about it today.

Ok, update. This is why I ordered the plane from towerhobbies. I called them and said what I need is the replacement set for the landing gear which is stock number LXACKC on their website. That has everything I need replaced. They said they would send it right out, no charge of course. Nice. I hope the new gear set fits right.

update....the new gear fit just fine. If your gear doesnt fit right, dont make it work, just get parts that fit right.

capt_todd

Do you all think my RCGF 20cc gas motor will be ok for this plane? I flew it in my previous plane before a battery failure but it was a 10 pound Sig Waco biplane. How much is this plane really going to weigh? This engine's manual says that it has 2.2hp and the dle 20 states that it has 2.5hp. What do you think?

cannonball200

My Feedback: (36)

Capt Todd It will weigh around 14 1/2#. The 20 gas you have will fly it. My Dle 20 has plenty of power. That 20 should be fine. Do it....




Thanks,
Eddie of OKC

althepal88

My Feedback: (31)

My GP Waco flies very scale with an older, reliable Zen G-23 (magneto) and a Master Airscrew 16-6. We maidened her out yesterday and I was very impressed with the performance. Fast; no. Scale-like; yes. We did notice that the rudder will be used a lot for your turns. Floats in perfect for wheel landings. Hammerheads were beautiful; aileron rolls were pretty with virtually no yaw. Loops were very scale like. Yes, she will spin but she comes out quickly with the proper controls. Mine is a just a tad nose heavy for which I will add some lead to the rear and move the rx battery back. All in all, lots of fun to fly and watch.

cannonball200

My Feedback: (36)

Althepal88-Awesome to hear about your maiden with your Waco!!!!! Mine has the same flight characteristics.. Very relaxing to fly and floats in like a feather and wheel lands with ease.


I love my Waco,

Eddie of OKC

capt_todd

Thanks for the info. Glad the maiden went well. Do you know how much horsepower that engine has? Did it struggle a little on the hammerheads or did it seem like it had a little more power than it needed?

althepal88

My Feedback: (31)

The G23 has about two ponies with a stock carb and muffler. As for the hammerhead, she just seems to almost hang there for a millisecond and then you kick that BIG rudder, straight down and out. I keep about a 1/4 throttle when I reach the top.

capt_todd

Those pictures you posted of your dle20 and hangar 9 engine mount look real good and are very helpful... The dle 20 is on backorder at tower and at advantagehobby. I guess I am going to have to buy some 3.5" standoffs for about $30 but that is alot cheaper than a new engine, and try my rcgf. I had more on here asking about where to find the hangar 9 mount, found it, and then it wouldnt let me delete the post so I tried to add something worth reading, sorry.

WI53072

Really like this plane. I have a DLE 35RA which besides the extra power is from what I can tell the same physical dimension as the DLE 30. Thinking of ordering the plane before GP discontinues it and I miss out once again on a beauty. The Super Stearman is also very tempting! Decisions Decisions!

Paul

capt_todd

Hey cannonball....
Ok, I gave up with the wood standoffs connected to the metal standoffs, too long. I am taking your advice on the set up of this plane and I bought a dle20 and the hangar9 engine mount that you have. Both were hard to find but troybuilt models has the dle20 in stock and the engine mount could only be found at horizon hobby. The mount fits so perfect. However in order to adjust the carb later, I flipped the carb 180 degrees so the adjustments are on the bottom of the plane instead of the elect ig tray being in the way. Then I had to drill a hole in the throttle arm to allow clearance for the ball link nut to not hit the engine, worked fine. I hope the pushrods will be ok.
It looks like you used the wood standoffs supplied in the kit, Which ones did you use and how did you get it to work since it doesnt look like you moved the engine to the side of the standoffs to drill new holes in it? I guess that is what I will do. How many of the wood standoffs did you use? Do you remember?
Thanks

cannonball200

My Feedback: (36)

Capt Todd, I will get you that info. My brother-in law passed away after a bout with nasty old cancer wed morning and we have been busy with family etc. Just got home from a get together this evening and trying to clear my mind by looking here. I forget how many plywood pieces I used but will look and see. I had to find some extra socket head bolts in 8/32 to screw into blind nuts I installed in the firewall. I used some special extended throttle arms ordered from chief aircraft for the walbo carb copy on the dle 20.

I will post something for you tomorrow evening...

Thanks,
Eddie

capt_todd

cannonball, those look like the wood standoffs that come with the kit, if so how in the world did you get the screw holes to line up right? Also where are you guys finding 2.75" to 3" screws to go through the mount, standoffs, firewall, and into the blind nuts? Having a rough time here, guys....

cannonball200

My Feedback: (36)

I will try this evening to take the Waco down from ceiling and take off the cowl and count the spacers plus get you a better pic. Here is a pic. I just centered the square spacers around the fuel tank hole on the firewall. I think I used 2 1/2" 8/32 socket head bolts but I will remove one and double check it.
Thanks,
Eddie

raptureboy

Longer cap screws are avaiilable at your local hardware store or big box home center. Stand offs can be made using a 1" dia dowel and cutting to length and drilling out with a drill press

chopper man

I am getting ready to order the Waco from Tower. I have an OS 1.20 laying around doing nothing. What are your thoughts on using this engine?
Thanks for the input.

Chopper

capt_todd

So you are planning on spending a lot of money on fuel then...
My thoughts are... Sell that nice engine on ebay or craigslist and buy a gas engine. You wont regret it. Dont buy the dle30 unless u want to hover the plane. The dle 20 is good because you dont have to butcher up the cowl. You will love going and spending around $4 for fuel when you had been spending around $20 a gallon with tax and it only lasting about half as long as gas. So you will spend about $5 with the added oil instead of $40 (since it lasts half as long). Before long the gas engine pays for itself. My friend and i went gas and we will never buy glow fuel again. Hope this helps

cannonball200

My Feedback: (36)

Capt Todd,

Sorry I have not gotten back with you on the standoffs # and the long socket head bolts. Had a funeral and been sick etc. I'm back in the mode now. I ordered those bolts online.
Did you get your engine in yet? I redrilled the standoff holes and installed blind nuts.

Eddie

chopper man

Any advise is helpful. Thanks. I don't have any experience with gas and just not sure if I could afford to go that route. I just don't have enough knowledge at this point. Any help as to how much would I need to invest in the engine and electronics to go gas is appreciated
Thanks

Chopper

capt_todd

Thanks cannonball. Yeah i got the dle 20 installed by driiling new holes in the standoffs and using blind nuts

Chopper man... How many times do you think you will fly this plane? Lets see, about 5 tanks of fuel per gallon give or take, thats somewhere around $4 a flight (same price as a gallon of gas that lasts twice as long), lets say you fly the plane 30 tanks or flights this year. That would be $120. With gas using half as much roughly, we'll say $2 for half a gallon to run the same amount of time. Or just say 10 flights per gallon. So for 30 flights that would be 10 flights at $4 a gallon....x three to get 30 flights and that costs you $12. !!
So you sell the engine you have for $150 give or take a couple twenties, buy a dle20 for $250 with free shipping no tax online, so you're $100 in the hole, which you will make up for in the first year flying. Now if you didnt do it this way, next year you are out another $120 in glow fuel again to fly about 30 times give or take.
If it was me i would be hesitant to fly the plane because of the high price of fuel and not fly it as often as i would if fuel was cheap. Just trying to help.

Sandyt

Chopper

You didn't mention if your OS 1.20 is two stroke or four, but either on will fly the WACO well. I have an OS 1.20 four stroke twin in mine, and it has plenty of power (not to mention an awesome exhaust note ). The two stroke has much more power and is definitely thirstier. I have 2 of them and like them a lot. I would use what you have unless you are in the money-spending mode.

Sandy T

sj3cub

My Feedback: (9)

Chopper, Put the 1.20 4S in it. You will not regret it. It's a perfect fit, and has plenty of power for this model. Not to mention that it will sound really really sweet in there. I wouldn't put a gas engine in mine for nothing. You don't want your plane sounding like a Stihl chainsaw while its flying. Nothing worse than a nice scale airframe with a engine in it that sounds like your at the woodpile sawing up logs for the winter. Really annoying. About as bad a seeing a beautiful 1/4 scale J3 flying over sounding like its blowing off a driveway somewhere. Just a disgrace to a scale airframe.

chopper man

A lot of good input and ideas. Thanks! The OS I have is a 2 stroke. I'll have to give all the ideas a lot of thought.
Thanks

Gene

leedees

I agree completely with sj3cub. There are a few of these beautiful Wacos flying at my club. When the 4S powered ones fly everyone stops to watch, the gassers are ignored and called 'weedeaters'.

If economy is a concern, get a gasser and enjoy flying but if a small amount of fuel money doesn't matter, fly scale sounding airplanes.

You could of course abandon all reason and put in electric power. :-)