GP Cap 232 .40
11-05-2007, 02:14 PM
#1
GP Cap 232 .40
I thought I would share some pictures of my Great Planes Cap 232 that I finally finished building after getting the kit 4 years ago! Too many ARFs have crossed my path over the past four years so I haven't been focusing on this build, but it sure was fun and rewarding. The only mods I made were: placing all servos inside the fuse, replacing the cheap ABS cowl with a nice fiberglass one from Fiberglass Specialties, upgrading HW, and added 1 degree washout to help with the reputation CAPs have for snaping. I'm running an OS 70 surpass that I had in a GP Decathlon about 15 years ago.
I took it up for the maiden flight yesterday and was very surpised how well it flew. It only needed a couple clicks of down elevator trim and one click of right aileron trim to get it trimmed out. CG and thrust line seem to be okay, but it was blowing about 10-15 so it was tough to really trim it out fully. I had vertical performance with a 13x6 prop and it tracked very well. There were no stall tendancies and slow flight was very stable. Inverted flight required only a small amount of down elevator and there was no roll coupling with KE, but there was a very small pitch to canopy. I'll continue to trim it out over the next few flights and will add mixing, albeit minimal, to reduce the KE pitch coupling. The only mod I would make if I were to do it again would be to increase the width of the ailerons, although they are suitable as is.
Next kit up is a Proctor Antic bipe...
Steve
I took it up for the maiden flight yesterday and was very surpised how well it flew. It only needed a couple clicks of down elevator trim and one click of right aileron trim to get it trimmed out. CG and thrust line seem to be okay, but it was blowing about 10-15 so it was tough to really trim it out fully. I had vertical performance with a 13x6 prop and it tracked very well. There were no stall tendancies and slow flight was very stable. Inverted flight required only a small amount of down elevator and there was no roll coupling with KE, but there was a very small pitch to canopy. I'll continue to trim it out over the next few flights and will add mixing, albeit minimal, to reduce the KE pitch coupling. The only mod I would make if I were to do it again would be to increase the width of the ailerons, although they are suitable as is.
Next kit up is a Proctor Antic bipe...
Steve
