madman4049

Hello Everyone. I am thinking about building the 40 size great planes slow poke. Does anyone have any comments and or video clips of this aircraft so that I can make a sound decision. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. I have heard several remarks about it being tail heavy but I have also heard that once balanced it is a good flier. Thanks

nathan

ecmiller

If it is going to be your second plane I would recommend something more stable. The slow poke is a very touchy airplane due to the short wing to tail moment. It requires very little elevator travel, even less than than the plans specify. I can remember the take off on the maiden flight. I pulled back on the stick and she just leaped right off of the ground.

I bought mine thinking that it was going to be a very easy plane to fly with the wing cord being as wide as it is. Is does fly very slow and landings are short and sweet, however, at higher speeds it becomes much more agile.

I built mine from a kit and was not impressed with the wood. Sheeted surfaces are covered with 1/16" balsa and much of the structure is made from thin balsa. The manufacturer could have used a thicker and a better quality balsa.

hilleyja

My Feedback: (3)

There was another thread that ask everyone to list the WORST airplanes they have ever flown. My answer was the 40-size Slow Poke.

"SLOW" Poke. One might think this means this airplane can move inches per hour without stalling. NOT!!!!

I made a mistake and traded for one of these from another member in the club. The VERY 1ST TIME I flew this airplane it leaped off the ground and
appeared to be flying just fine until I banked her to the left and lost complete control. She stalled big time and I had no altitude to deal with it. This
is exactly what happened when the original owner flew it. He subsequently repaired it and traded it to me. I put the broken airplane in the hanger
and ended up trading it back to the original owner a year later.

I guess I should have been suspect when I found out the original builder had to add 12oz of lead in the nose to balance her with an OS .46 FX.

If you just like to build, go for it. If you also like to fly find another airplane.

madman4049

Thank you very much for the input. I myself have built and flown around 12 models of varying construct and attitude. I was looking for a plane which I could use to be lazy with on a weekend but also teach my wife on a buddy cord on certain occasions. So kind of a double use bird. Have any recommendations?