rthorne

My Feedback: (29)

Hi Group:

I'm interested in the 35% giles kit from Lanier. I've never built one of their kits. Whats the word on them.

They look pretty nice other than the abs cowl and wheel pants which I would replace with fiberglass.

Thanks in advance.

snsmith

My Feedback: (5)

I have one experience with them and it was so bad that I'll never buy another one. I built a 1/4 scale Laser (see my avatar), which ultimately turned out to be an excellent flying plane, but the kit was poor. I received warped balsa (literally all of it), defective lite-ply and heavy luaun plywood (think cheap door skins). The plastic cowl, wheel pants, turtledeck and wing cover was very heavy. The first iteration was 10.5lbs even after boring extra lightening holes and I rebuilt the fuse from scratch with my own materials and took over a pound out (mainly luaun plywood and plastic).

When it was all said and done, they only parts left from the kit were the landing gear, foam cores, canopy and wing cover. Not exactly when I had in mind when I started the kit.

Nathan

My Feedback: (12)

My experience with Lanier was a Stinger. It appeared to me as though the instructions were printed off a regular printer and copied for multiple distribution. Nothing wrong with that, but I also felt they were incomplete, leaving a lot to the imagination. When I contacted them asking for help, they referred me back to the instruction manual.

A good portion of the wood had to be replaced at the LHS because it was warped. The cowl and wheel pants are constructed of plastic that is not best quality I've seen. No hardware was included (but the price reflects that).

These were some of the frustrations I had with the Stinger, the Giles may be different. I know you're asking about the Giles, and I don't have experience with that airplane, but I can tell you that I will be very cautious purchasing a kit from Lanier again. I'll probably have to see it in person before I'd buy it.

There's a nice article at rcflightunlimited.com about the 35% Giles, as well as other Lanier kits... may want to check that out.

MiL

hmm, doesnt sound so great... i was considering a Lanier Extra 3.25... i'm gonna have to think a little harder about it now. It would only be my 2nd built model, the first one being a duraplane that probably doesnt really even count as 'building'.

fokkerflier

My Feedback: (1)

rthorne
I have had several Lanier kits and have been ok with them, however I do agree with snsmith about the luaun ply fuse sides, they are of very poor quality and very heavy. I think these kits are more designed for the modeler with a decent amount of building experence. The only Lanier products I suggest to stay completely away from are their ARF pieces of bleach bottle junk.
The ones I have are Stinger .10, Stinger .40, 1/4 scale Laser 200, and an unbuilt Stinger 120. All so far fly like they are on rails, don't have any bad habbits on take off or landing. I have yet to see any kit that you don't have to replace a few pieces of wood. I do suggest you replace the fuse. sides with lite ply.

hope this helps wes

Goggles

My Feedback: (4)

I've built 2 of Lanier kits and I didn't have many problems.

1/4 Extra 300: I replaced the cowl and wheel pants of the extra with glass ones, the plastic parts took a bit to fit closely, but I had no problems with the wood. I also changed the way the wings were held on with the screw in the top of the wing, I didn't want them showing on the paint job.



1/4 Laser 200: In the process of building a new glass cowl for it, but I built the plane about 7 years ago so it has held up pretty well. I've also replaced the wheel pants with my own glass ones. I seem to remember the fuse sides not being good quality like smith had mentiond but I made it work.

paulrcpilot-RCU

My Feedback: (32)

I have builtseveral of the Lanier kits mentioned and agree some improvements could be made especiallt to the Stinger line of kits but what do you expect for the price. I have built their Extra 300S aside from the plastic parts it was great flew rock solid. I have built two of the Giles 202's and they were vastly improved over the Extra the only plastic was the cowl which I replaced. Both were powered by Sachs 5.8's and are just like a .40 size hot rod geat fun.

gizmo8012

My Feedback: (15)

I bought the Lanier Giles in the last part of December and have already got the fuse finished and in the process of sheeting the wings, Mark Poole has a review that is very helpful on this website, http://webpages.charter.net/rcfu/KitReviews/ , I have built several different brands of kits and this one is ok, I went ahead and used the plastic cowl and wheelpants and it just takes a little patience to put together, I would suggest fiberglassing stress points on the cowl and pants comes out to about the same weight, the wood quality is better I think than previous lanier kits, I really like the change to built up turtledeck instead of abs. On the engine side I would recomment using a zdz 80 or simular light engine, I was going to use a Brison 5.8 which is listed for sale right now on rcuniverse but I think I want a zdz 80 instead because the brison is too big for this plane, thanks!

Balsageek

Lanier kits are definately made for an experienced builder. I am currently building a Giant Scale Stinger, and after it's done there's no doubt in my mind that I will be able to scratch build one. Every lanier kit that I've encountered has needed a little "weightwatchers" action. If you keep it holy and light it'll be a good plane!

WarpedWing

My Feedback: (3)

I built a Lanier CAP 232 and love it. I thought the kit was terrifc---the laser cut parts were exceptional. The whole kit went together just beautifully. I did use aftermarket fiberglass cowl and wheel pants. I haven't built the Giles, but I'm fairly familar with the kit. From what I've seen, its another terrific kit. For the $$$ value, I think you'll be very pleased.

bitstream

I'm building one of Lanier's 17.5% Giles. So far, everything has been good. Some poor balsa, but only a couple of pieces. The instructions are pretty poor. Bad xerox copies, even stapled in the wrong order, some duplicated and omitted steps. But, the plans clarify much of the confusion. All in all, it'll I think its a good kit.

Shortman

My Feedback: (21)

Lanier kits I hear fly good, but package and building wise suck. The wood I hear is not up to par like Great Planes or Sig and there instruction manual isnt thorough. i think thats how u spell it, anyways at rcfu they said it took them 3 kits to get a nice one, the first having a warped wing and cracked canopy, so thats my thoughts about them???

gizmo8012

My Feedback: (15)

I would have to say that at first Lanier wasnt up to par on what I would say a lazy mans model , meaning you do have to have experience with building giant scale previously, and it leaves room for modification to be made lighter, and again I thank Mark Poole for the great review he did on the Giles G-202, but now I think that Lanier quality has improved and I am extremely happy with their service and kits, I have built the 35% Giles G-202 and 33% Extra 300s and both went together great, I even had a couple of missing pieces of wood and both times I called Lanier they were very helpful and spontanious in sending the missing pieces well packaged and First class shipping ( within 2 days ), dont get me wrong they are not as classy as Great planes or Top flight with through instructions but look at what you get for the amount of money, their are not many 35% planes you can purchase for under $300 bucks!!! even Carden doesnt include hardware with their kits unless purchased ( I love Carden planes by the way :-), tell me how much hardware a sport modeler actually uses that comes with a kit anyway other than maybe the screws and control horns or a motor mount?, I am knot knocking your comments I am just standing up for Lanier because I think they are great and not to mention I am currently building the Giles :-) and just got in my zdz80rv with pitts muffler, thanks!

CAPtain232

My Feedback: (40)

I just recently started building their ULTIMATE PITTS Bipe. I have the top wing done and it built pretty light. The instruction have lots of room for improvement. I nearly completely redesigned the tail end. It was a heavy design so I lightened it. I also made adjustments to the tail end for more rudder travel and lengthened the rudder by 1". Added 1.5" to the elevators.
I do believe that the fuse will be easily built, but I think I will replace some of the wood.

Good Luck
Jeff

KenLambert

My Feedback: (107)

I have built and building several lanier kits 3 caps and one on the board 4 stadachers 1 giles 35% 2 arf caps the wood in all these kits were nice wood they all built very easy one week to frame them,and they fly great,one point is to lighten them for flying but if you plan on crashing leave them beefed up

bitstream

Arrrggghh. I think I will change my opinion of the small Giles. Number of problems during final assembly, which I can easily correct, but still a pain. Wing saddle on fuse was not long enough, I had to trim the aileron stock on the trailing edge of the wing to fit. Also, had to sheet one side of the aileron stock, because it is not as thick as the trailing edge of the wing. The tail section of the fuse is also 1/4" too short. I will have to shorten the fin to make it fit. Both wing and fin are built per plan, and the fuse is tabbed, so you can't screw it up. The fuse is simply not made correctly. Also, instructions aren't good. A couple of places they reference "detail drawings" on the plan that do not exist. Anyway, I still think it will be a great plane. I would just hate to have these kinds of problems on a large plane. My kit is a couple of years old and hopefully, like a fine wine, they have improved with age

Stuntpilot

My Feedback: (1)

I’m currently building a Lanier, Giles 202, 17.5%. First, thanks to all who have posted in this thread, I’m going to benefit from your experience. I already see that sheeting the aileron stock. As for this kit, I would not recommend it. Bad pictures on the plans. Incorrect order of steps. Steps not clear. Missing wood. I have yet to contact Lanier with my suggestions and gripe about the missing wood which, so far, is 3 sticks of stock balsa. The $5 extra I’ll spend on the balsa is not a real big deal obviously, but the added trips to the store are just a pain when you suddenly discover your short a stick of balsa and you just came back from the store. When I bought the kit I expected to make some modifications and upgrade to fiberglass cowl and pants. However, including all the stock parts and providing clear instructions are a minimum requirement for any kit.

G.F. Reid

My Feedback: (1)

Built the Cap 232.
Wood and fit of parts was very good to excellent.
Instuction manual was minimal and plans had an error on them.
I'd recommend for experienced builders only.
Finished product is very satisfying and flight characteristics are very good. Flew right off building board without a click of trim. I'd have no problem buying another if they had something I had a sudden case of the hots for..

CÅÞ²³²

In my dealings with lanier kits ive had nothing but good kits from them I am building the 33% extra 300s now. Id take a lanier kit over a carden kit any day I just cant see paying 500- $1000.00 for a box of wood and foam..

Giant Scale

I have built 2 of the Lanier 35% Giles, for the money the kit quality is very good. Check out my gallery for some construction pics. Their customer service is excellent and they are very helpful if you have questions. I used the ZDZ-80 engine and the performance is impressive. I would not hesitate to purchase another kit from them.

JetAwithPrist

At the other end of the size scale i built a 1/2a shrike and it was decent. The wood was ok, i think i used most all of it (what little there is in a plane with a 24" wingspan.) The instructions stunk, but if you have built a few kits with good success, then it shouldnt be too bad. Not sure how much any of it has to do with a 35%plane though, i bet the tail is bigger than the wingspan on that little shrike!

don becker-RCU

Plastic cowls, turtledecks and wheelpants can be griped about with ANY manufacturers kit.

Here's a tip that makes em half as good as fiberglass: Line with drywall fiberglass tape then coat with pvc glue or epoxy. This gives some heft and you can reinforce again at the mounting holes if you wish.

I grab the wing sheets from the Lanier kits and immediately true with a straight edge and knife. Why wait? Then put together using the masking tape, quick glue method. Doesn't matter if the balsa is a little warped under heavy weight when gluing skins to cores.

Fuse sides must be drilled out for lightening holes , takes the big serrated ones and a drill press.

I've framed up many Lanier kits especially the Stinger, Laser and Extra line. call for quote if you want to save some time (usually $75 plus frt. -includes building supplies, glues, etc..) send kit or drop ship.
Happy Lanier flying new year!

Don Becker (317) 545 5822

Dago Red

My Feedback: (11)

flat out---Ill say this, buy a Midwest kit, might not have the plane you want but , they are very good kits, some places have to be beefed up, but easy to fix that, I have their 20% citabria, flies great.

stebab

i'm just about ready to cover a 1/4 scale Lanier Laser, and it has been a pain in my behind. I have written new instructions for completing the kit, and I am going to send them to Lanier... I hope that they include them so that the next unsuspecting builder doesn't get blindsided by thier overly generic instructions.

Take foam, cover with balsa, sand and fly.

CAPtain232

My Feedback: (40)

Reallistically, Lanier is a quality kit with AVERAGE wood. The instructions are not what I would call COMPLETE, but then again niether are CARDEN or AEROWORKS. These planes are designed and instructions written with the idea that the builder is a skilled builder. I build many kit now adays without using the manual. I usually look through it in the beginning, but then it just collects dust after I get started.

Would I buy a LANIER kit for myself?......
I have a 40% edge on the way!