dbacque

My Feedback: (3)

I put a You-Can-Do SF together a few months ago and found that one wing panel was crushed at the factory, every single rib except the root and the tip was broken. I fished a pile of broken laser cut parts out of it. Great Planes sent me a new wing. I put a .91 FX on it and had to move things around to hit CG (very aft battery hatch). The plane had a problem and was demolished after only a few flights due to an error in my modifications. But I also found out that my old .91 was very badly worn out. It had no compression and was weak as a puppy

I put another one together but put a new .65 AX on it. To my surprise this one had not one, but two crushed wing panels! Again, every rib except the root and the tip. The local hobby shop had one that he was sending back that had a broken aileron. I swapped an aileron on the broken wing for the one on the good wing and I've been flying the daylights out of it. The .65 is plenty strong for this plane, it fits nicely with the muffler hiding in the tunnel (something neither the stock .75 or .91 muffler will do) and the plane balances with no modifications of any kind. In level flight, half throttle or less is plenty and there's lots of reserve power when you pull into a vertical or a hover.

Check the wings carefully, 3 of the 4 wings we have seen locally have all been broken right out of the box and all packaging was undamaged. It looks like there is a problem at the factory. There are large lightening holes in the ribs. The remaining web in the ribs isn't strong enough for something that they are doing in the handling and/or packing after the wing is covered and they are breaking the web. Obviously it's being damaged after covering since all the parts are inside the wing but before packing since the packing is undamaged.

When you unbox the wing, shake it. If the wing rattles, try to find what is rattling. I was able to find broken rib parts and fish them out of the servo bays on 2 of the 4 wings (again, the 3rd damaged wing had a broken aileron, not ribs). Squeeze each rib to make sure the web isn't broken and it still has some vertical strength. Inspect the two ribs on each side of the servo holes with a flashlight. In all 3 crushed panels, you could see broken ribs on either side of the servo mount. Do not accept a wing with crushed ribs or broken parts rattling around in it. Great Planes will make good in a hurry with a new wing. And don't make the mistake I did of discovering the problem after you're finished construction, check the wing before you start assembly.

But the plane is lots of fun when you finally put one together that isn't broken. I'm glad I tried again. It's unfortunate that there are so many broken wings out there and really unfortunate that I destroyed one due to my own mistake.

As for what I did wrong on the first one, Let's just say it was stupid and let me keep it to myself. Anything you modify is your own responsibility.

Dave