DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

I’ve been flying my MA 37% Yak quite a bit. It’s set up for 3D, a bit rearward CG, mega throws on all surfaces, small 30” prop for good throttle response and “out of the hole” speed. Then I got a new engine, which I mounted in my old Fiberclassics 3.0m Extra, for run in purposes. For running these engines in I believe in getting as much fuel (at least 10 gallons) through them with run in oil (Lawnboy Ashless) as quick as possible. I don’t like to do much 3D during this process, and 3D doesn’t burn fuel very fast. I do it by doing a bunch of IMAC style flying; the engine moves at a nice rate of speed 99% of the time so the engine gets good cooling, everything is done fairly high and with good speed so any deadstick is easy to bring in.

So I started burning some fuel in this Extra, practicing point rolls, slow rolls, positive and negative snaps and all that other IMAC stuff. I really started liking it; I liked how your fingers start remembering the positions on the sticks to give just the right amount of rudder or down elevator to make your four point rolls look good, etc. etc.

Well, I had this strong and good running 3W140TOC engine sitting here, a bunch of HS5995TG servos and Fromeco batteries, so I decided to look for a plane that I would set up for IMAC only. I contacted Sammy Lee to see if we couldn’t give his 43% Giles G202 some exposure by doing a build thread and a review. We all know that MA’s Yaks have been moving like sliced bread and it is by far the most popular airplane in the MA hangar. The 42% Extra 330 has also received very positive critique from the people acquiring this plane, but I don’t recall having read anything about the 43% Giles G202. I really like the covering scheme on the big Yak and hey, the rudder has the US flag on it. So Sammy and I worked out the little details and got a BIG Giles shipped out to me, thank you Sammy.

Like the previous two airplanes I’ve bought from MA, the 40% and the 37% Yak 54, the 43% Giles is packed impeccably. Again, four individual and very sturdy cardboard boxes with parts inside a sturdy wood crate. And the foresight by MA to mount lengths of 2”x4” under the crate, so forklifts can easily get under it, is commemorable.

I went to Forward Air by LAX on a Friday evening to pick it up. The crate fit on its side in my Tahoe, just sticking out the back a little. Another advantage to MA’s packing is that you can put the crate on its side without fearing any shifting of the parts inside and damage to follow. Once back home I unpacked and inspected the parts and everything looked good.

I put the fuse on my worktable, which I had spent a considerable amount of time to clear off (my worktable just morphs into a table of litter in no time).

As you can see, the covering is impeccable; not a wrinkle and at this time no need to get the iron or heat gun out.

This Giles is from the first shipment arriving to the US, and the fuse does not have a pipe tunnel incorporated. I have a set of mufflers for my 3W engine so that really doesn’t matter to me.

The inside of the fuse is your normal, to be expected from MA, high quality wood structure and great workmanship. Beautifully laser cut lite ply and assembled using just the right amounts of glue.

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

The first step is mounting the main gear, the wheel pants and the wheels. Everything lined up perfect, the gear bolts onto the support with four bolts. The wheel pants already have a reinforcement plate glued to the inside for mounting to the gear. Everything went smooth and it didn’t take long to get the fuse on its feet.

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

I proceeded to mount the engine. At first I had visions of standing the fuse on its tail, resting the engine on the firewall, mounting the cowl, lining the engine up, removing the cowl and marking for mounting holes. But this fuse is large, I don’t have a banister or staircase to hang it from, and I don’t have a 9’ ladder, so I always find that procedure a bit nerve wrecking. I mounted the bottom cowl, then the top cowl and lined the front of the cowl up with each other to get a perfect fit with my 5” spinner (back plate). With just the bottom cowl installed, I just held the engine in place against the firewall, slid the spinner back plate onto the prop shaft and lined it up with the cowl. I marked the two top mounting holes and removed engine and cowl. I just drilled the two top mounting holes first and mounted the engine with only two bolts. This way, if the placement was off, I could correct with the bottom mounting holes and enlarge the top holes to allow for the slight correction. With the engine mounted with the two bolts, I mounted the bottom cowl again and then the top cowl. The spinner back plate lined up perfectly with the front of the two cowl halves. I measured how much the engine needed to be spaced from the firewall for the spinner back plate to just clear the cowl. I marked for the bottom mounting holes and removed the engine. I am just using some ¼” Allen head bolts, washers, fender washers, some aluminum backers from other stand offs I had laying around, and nuts to mount the engine, here is the result:

Below you can see the distance needs to be 7-5/8” from firewall to prop driver.

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

I proceeded to mark the bottom cowl for the muffler cut outs and to cut slots for cooling air to exit. After cutting the slots for the cooling air exit I found the cowl to be a little flimsy and was afraid vibrations or air pressure would rip the remaining fiberglass apart, so I Epoxied in some ¼” balsa stringers:

The below photo also shows how I’ve drilled the sides of the cowl for joining screws, which keep the two cowl halves together, a standard way to join two piece cowls. I am using 4-40 screws with reversed blind nuts glued to the inside bottom cowl with Epoxy and milled fibers. This photo is a bit out of focus, but shows the blind nuts glued in:

After the Epoxy had dried I mounted the cowl for a last test and slid the spinner on for a fit check, it all came out very nice.

DKjens

T. Bob

My Feedback: (9)

Hey DKjens

I think your TV is on fire.

Looks Great

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

T.Bob,
The TV and the fire is just to make me feel nice and cozy .

The top of the engine box is not glued in place. I anticipate mounting all batteries up in the engine box to get CG forward for IMAC, so I wanted to make the top lid removable. The engine box is built very sturdy, and with a regular 140-150cc engine I doubt I’ll have any structural issues going this way. I cut some mounting blocks out of some hardwood and mounted them to the inside of the engine box side walls.

I mounted the top lid and I mounted the ignition to the top lid, so far so good.

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

Next I attacked the canopy and canopy frame. As with all canopies, one has to be very careful when cutting and trimming these. It’s very easy to make them crack. I have found that making sure the material is nice and warm before taking the scissors to them helps. So if you live in a sunny place, leave the canopy in the sun for a while first (does not apply to Arizona, Texas and Florida). Of course one should use discretion and good sense, I am just saying, that cutting the canopy if it is below around 75F is probably not good. I trimmed the canopy and got it ready for attaching to canopy frame. I used the special canopy glue to attach the canopy. I first taped of the area on the fuse where the canopy frame would mount up against. Then mounted the canopy frame to the fuse with all four bolts to keep it in alignment. I then spread the glue onto the canopy frame and lowered the canopy onto the frame/glue. I taped the canopy down to keep it aligned and to keep contact between canopy and frame.

DKjens

T. Bob

My Feedback: (9)

No Pilot?

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

I went to work on the horizontal stabs. The horizontal stabs are supplied with some very large CA hinges. The vertical stab and the wings/ailerons are supplied with some Robart looking hinges. When installing CA hinges I use a trick learned from assembling my U-Can-Do 60 some years ago. I drill a hole down the hinge slot in all locations where a CA hinge will be inserted. This helps the thin CA to run and wick into the hinge and the wood. Since these are some considerably sized hinges, I drilled some 3/32” holes. After inserting pins in the middle of each hinge to keep it centered, insert hinge in one surface, then slip the other surface onto the hinges, remove pins and push surfaces together. Apply thin CA as you would normally do when gluing CA hinges.

Rudder was hinged. I used 3 hour Epoxy for rudder and aileron hinges. I will usually glue the hinge to one surface first, then apply glue to the other surface and slip it onto the hinges, making sure the hinge points stay between the two surfaces. Then taping the surface down to make sure it doesn’t slip off the hinges. Using 3 hour Epoxy assures me that the glue doesn’t start setting up in the middle of the process. It’s a bad feeling when your little cup with Epoxy starts to get warm and you’re only half done with the job.

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

For the rudder control I am going with two Hitec HS5995TG servos. I wanted to set them up in a sort of a floating bell-crank arrangement, but I wanted to use little wheels or trusses in stead of a bell crank. I found some small wheels at www.smallparts.com and bought 20 (I need some for other planes). I decided where to mount the rudder servos and Epoxied some hard rails in.

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

I made some rudder arms from some 1/8” phenolic I have, and secured them to uni-hubs with 4-40 screws. Mounted the servos in the rails, as can be seen, the forward servo sits higher than the servo behind it. I ran a wire from each side of the arms down around the truss and back to the arm on the other servo, and ended up with this set-up:

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

It works great, these two servos are VERY strong, the rudder centers perfect, the servos will never fight each other, and importantly, it’s a very light set-up for what you get. I will do similar set-ups with three servos in the future.

I went back up in front and mounted the throttle servo. The throttle servo I mounted with double sided servo mounting tape and a tie strap is pulled over it. It’s an easy and fast, yet secure way of mounting the throttle servo, and it gives a straight shot to the carburetor.

Fuel line was pulled through a grommet in the bottom of the engine box as can be seen here.

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

Mounting the tank is straight forward. I actually found a use for one of the old hinge tubes from a Composite-ARF 3.0m Extra. I bent it to shape and used it for most of the tank went line, here is a mock-up of the tank set-up:

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

Moving back up front, I went to mount switches. The airframe doesn’t really have any places where you can cut out to mount switches. I made a small plate in balsa, cut out for the three switches, glued this plate in up front, cut the covering and mounted the switches to this balsa plate. Here are shots of the switches and the final tank mounting:

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

Batteries were mounted up in the engine box. Again I used double sided servo mounting tape with a tie strap around them. I pulled the tie straps through silicone tubing as a padding:

The Smart-Fly Engine-Kill switch is mounted to the side of the engine box with servo mounting tape.

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

Finally the top lid could be securely mounted and the top cowl could be mounted again. I found a white fiberglass spinner, which looks killer on this plane. You can see my switch arrangement, fuel dot and my Smart-Fly Engine-Kill diode under the dot.

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

I mounted the Smart-Fly Power Expander to the side of the fuse.

Finally everything was mounted inside the fuse:

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

I have two Hitec HS5995TG servos in each wing. I connect the wires from these with the wires from the Power Expander with the 6 lead Multiplex plugs. I solder the wires to the plugs, then wrap them in masking tape and pour Epoxy with fibers down into the tape pocket. This incases the solder joints in Epoxy, for a secure connection, and gives a good handle to grab when connecting and dis-connecting these connections.

DKjens

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

Next was assembling everything in my drive way and test run the engine.

The engine started right up and runs very well. Maiden flight will be next Saturday, May 20.

DKjens

rcairflr

My Feedback: (44)

Whatever happened with this airplane. Seems like the thread just fizzled out with a flight report or all up weight of this airplane.

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

The Giles flew very well. It was by no means a fast air frame and it would run out of steam on uplines with a snap or snaps. It had very little coupling in knife edge and was a very neutral flyer. I unfortunately flew it through some power lines in Chula Vista, lost half of the left wing and the rudder was yanked off. I still managed to fly it to the numbers and set it down with minimal damage. A friend owns the fuse now and is building new wings for it.

DKjens

rcairflr

My Feedback: (44)

Since it ran out of steam on uplines I assume it was heavy. Do you know the all up weight. I am interested since Chief has this airframe for $850, I am trying to decide whether to get a 35% airframe or go to 40%.

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

I would say it is more draggy than heavy. It has quite a frontal area, rather thick wings, large wing span, sizeable ailerons. Also, I was running a somewhat older 3W140, that even though it ran like a charm, wasn't quite a 150. This same engine flyes a 37.5% Yak54 very well though.

For $850.00 from Chief's I seriously doubt you can go wrong. With 3 servos per aileron, 2 per elevator half and 3-4 (or a Seiko) on rudder, you'll have a great airframe, also for 3D if wanting that, but it does take some servo power.

DKjens

vahpr

My Feedback: (3)

I purchased one of these "on-sale" from TBM for quite a bit more than $850....you got a screaming deal

No matter, I've yet to start on this one for want of a suitable motor. At 41-43lbs (advertised), a DA150 is on the small side.

Can anyone comment on what a good motor choice might be at this weight? 3D, unlimited vertical desired

Jerry O

rcairflr

My Feedback: (44)

3w-170, also I believe DA is working on a 170.