Casey Frost
Posts: 36
Joined: 8/11/2003
From: Roseville, CA, USA
Status: offline
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The Great Planes U-Can-Do-3D is intended for intermediate fliers who want to learn 3D flying or want a back up or practice plane for a giant scale full aerobatic machine. This is definitely a sport flier that assembles easy and is easy to fly. This makes a great third plane or second if you played and are good at a lot of video games (aka good hand eye coordination). My first plane was a GP PT-40 kit which I built myself. The U-Can-Do-3D is my second plane and I thought is was a great flier and found it to land easier than the PT, especially in a cross wind.
As with everything there are pro's and con's to this plane and I'll try document them here as thoroughly as possible as well as indicate where I made modifications and adjustments. My basic set up is as follows;
Radio Gear:
Tx: Futaba 6EXA
Rx: Futaba R127DF
Servos;
-Throttle - 1x Hitec HS-81
-Rudder -- 1x Hitec HS-605BB Throw is 45 degrees
-Elevator- 2x Futaba S3004 Throw is 45 degrees
-Aileron---2x Hitec HS-605BB* Up and down travel is apx 3.5"
Battery: JR 6V 1100
*Was originally Futaba S3004 until they broke teeth.
Power:
Saito .91 on 20/20 Wildcat fuel
14x6 Master airscrew (white tips)
Before getting into the review I'll break it down on a scale of one to ten ten being the best as to what I liked and didn't like about the plane. Overall I'd say I'm turned off by the lack of quality demonstrated by Great Planes on this model but am highly impressed with the models flight capabilities.
Packaging, Assembly and Instructions : 9
Fit and finish :6
Overall flight characteristics :9
Reliability/Durability :3
Packaging, Assembly and Instructions :9
I have read many reviews on RC universe about packaging issues with the U-Can-Do-3D about it showing up with broken wing ribs and fuselage damage, however mine came in pristine condition. Not even a dent in the covering so I can't fault GP for packaging quality on this model. Assembly was also very straight forward, however I took MANY liberties with the hardware. I didn't really like any of the hardware shipped and the only thing I used from the kit was the wire and hardware for the throttle linkage. I installed aluminum control horns on all control surfaces and linked them up to the servos with custom made carbon fiber/titanium rods. I used safety links and ball ends to connect the rods to the servo and control horns. I also used metal hinges instead of the supplied CA hinges, and installed an Ohio RC tail wheel assembly which I modified to fit. I also used Du-Bros pull-pull rudder system which I had to create a servo tray under the plane to mount the servo. I'm a big reliability freak so overkill is in my nature. Even with all of the modifications I was finished building the model in a day and a half. The instructions are up to the hype of GP literature in that it misses nothing. I was quite impressed up to this point.
Fit and Finish :6 
The fit of all the components was actually quite good. Nothing required any tweaking or sanding to make fit, it just all went together and lined up well. One gripe I have is that they designed the plane to run a 2 1/4" spinner and nobody makes a spinner that small that fits the props needed to fly this plane. I would have liked to see a 3" spinner or something I could shove my 14x6, 15x6 or 16x4 into. The finish left a lot to be desired though. There was no damage to the covering but it was badly wrinkled under the canopy and along the fuse sides. To this day no amount of ironing or heat gun application has made them disappear. As I mentioned earlier I built my PT-40 and covered it myself and it looks much better and to this day is absolutely wrinkle free. The only part GP did better on the covering than I did was on the edges, but in comparison I'm quite disappointed that the "expert" covering people at GP did such a half @$$ job. The wing was just fine, like it was done by a whole different person. The covering is even peeling off at the edges now on the fuse!
Overall flight characteristics :9
Takeoff:
-With the Saito .91 and 20% fuel this plane will take off of a table top. Lately I have been practicing taking off across the runway, doing a roll and transitioning to a hover. It's such a blast to fly and easy to control. On a roll out take off you only need to give it about 1/3 throttle and let it pull itself into the air, using a little rudder to keep it straight down the runway. For a "scale" take off some down elevator would be necessary to keep it on the deck longer.
Landing:
-Sooooo easy! I wondered why I even had a trainer. This was easier to land since it's much less affected by crosswinds than my 6" dihedral PT-40. Comes down very slow, flares nicely for a perfect three point touchdown. (Trainer war VERY useful for learning how to FLY)
Slow flight and "Scale" speed:
-Forget it, it's too much fun to mess with that stuff. you want scale and slow? Buy a Cub. This thing was meant to ROCK!
Aerobatics: 
-Les Pizza dee resistor or whatever the French phrase is. The Saito .91 is a nice match for the plane but wont pull it vertical out of a hover, but it recovers without much loss in altitude so hovers about 15-20 feet off the ground with this setup is safe. I don't have the gomers to go quite that low yet, but I could (really I could  ). This plane does most things very well and won't execute only a handful of maneuvers that are common to most long tail moment aircraft. The knife edge is a little tricky as it wants to roll toward the belly. It wont waterfall well as the tail is too long. Does spectacular blenders and walls very well. I even got it to do a knife edge wall and turned it into a hover. Quite nice. Rolls and loops are nice, but I need to adjust the CG back to it will track level while inverted. It even snaps well which IS unusual for a long tail plane. It's nothing like and Extra or Edge but still quite good. With the light wing loading it's very easy to recover from stall maneuvers without losing much altitude.
This plane is fun, fun, fun to fly...
Reliability/Durability: 3 
...until it breaks. This has been the real sore spot for me and the ultimately the straw that broke the camels back. My final analysis will always rest with Reliability and Durability and the most important factors. What fun is a model if you cant fly it? Lesson 1 about ARF's: Hot glue sucks. This whole plane seems to be glued together with the stuff and I'm debating whether scotch tape would have made a better adhesive. The first problem I had was after about a half dozen flights and all above average landings. While TAXIING back to the pits the landing gear fell off! Hmm, that never happened on the PT-40 I built! Inspection revealed the culprit, hot glue and absolutely no reinforcement. There wan't even much area for the glue to stick to. My repair was to 30 min EPOXY!!! the gear block back in place and EPOXY!!! some tri stock to support it. And for good measure to satisfy my overkill needs, I drilled some holes through the wing dowel plate on the fuse through a truss I EPOXIED!!! in place on the other side of the LG block and EPOXIED!!! some carbon fiber tubing in place. Good to go! Until the next weekend when the right side wing tip broke from flight stress and tore the covering. A wing tip? What's up with that? Glue it up, recover and re-fly. Canopy flew off... I guess the four supplied screws didn't do it. OK, how about 20 screws! Take that!!! Day is done, take the plane apart and I put my thumb through the belly pan under the wing.  Remove belly pan, reinforce with tri stock, remove covering from under wing where belly pan goes because belly pan came off too easy and EPOXY!!! the whole thing back together. And now finally for something that was MY fault. Left elevator servo comes unplugged in flight. Plane goes in softly. I actually managed to more or less belly flop the plane onto the ground. I was happy to see my landing gear EPOXY!!! job was so good that the weakest point was the block itself which tore apart where the carbon tubing was drilled through. I was unhappy to see the firewall laying on the ground in perfect condition next to a fuse in near perfect condition. Apparently coming apart only because the hot glue sucks and there was absolutely NO reinforcement for the wall. So I made a new landing gear block and gave it the same treatment and EPOXIED!!! it and a U shaped montage of tri stock around the firewall back into place. While I was at it I tri stocked some of the formers and the wing dowel plate on the fuse as well. After all of the repairs and mods, I have successfully flown the plane three straight weekends without something breaking which is a record for me.
Summary :
What to make of this thing. I'm pretty sure I'm done with balsa ARF's My next plane is going to be a composite Giant Scale like an Extra or Edge. If those ARF's don't work then I'm just going to have to build 'em myself. And I'm fine with that. The U-Can-Do-3D is a very fun plane to fly, but I would not recommend it. For $180 and all the mods I put into it I could have paid $199 for a FiberClassics (now composite-arfs.com) Skydancer which is slightly smaller, but is a composite plane (strong and light), painted (no more monocote wrinkles) and comes with much better hardware and a legendary reputation. I may just sell the U-Can-Do-3D and get the Skydancer to replace it, but I'm wanting to convert to all Gas so we'll see. If you have any further questions about the U-Can-Do-3D feel free to email me or PM me. Thanks for taking the time to read my review.
< Message edited by Casey Frost -- Aug 12 2003 1:19PM >
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Last words of a 3D plane owner. "Hey y'all, watch this!"
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All Forums >> Radios, Batteries, Clubhouse and more >> User Product Reviews >> U-Can-Do-3D In depth review and poll 
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