Recently Tom invited me to explore the 3D and tumbling characteristics of his new G202. These paragraphs are my opinions, not the manufacturers.

The Giles does beautiful waterfalls. Multiple waterfalls in a little over two fuselage lengths with little drift off the yaw axis were accomplished by flying rudder and aileron through the waterfalls.

Spins of all sorts are dramatic, flat spins are very flat and slow, both upright and inverted. Knife edge spins are the tightest I have ever seen, and very spectacular. The plane spins around the centerline of the wing, very very quickly.

High alpha flight is stable with some wing rocking. This rocking is not severe, just a gentle 'falling leaf' oscillaton. The plane is very stable in yaw and pitch with an oscillation in roll. One afternoon of flying was spent experimenting with aileron reflex and this seemed to have some positive effects at dampening out the wing rock. There was definitely a point beyond which no benefit was realized. Powering out of a harrier or elevator while the reflex was present did not present any unwanted tendencies in normal forward flight. There was little change in pitch with 5-10 degrees of reflex and full power. Shallow turns using rudder only were accomplished with no indication of wing stall.

Elevators are very pretty and easy, some power is required to hold the nose high. The airplane exhibits the wing rock, although not as dramatic as when flying forward in high alpha (a harrier). The transition from low rate elevator to high rate/3D throws is best accomplished rapidly, as in a wall. The plane would drop a wingtip slightly about 25% of the time when performing a wall. The dropped wing tip was easily picked up with corrective rudder. There was no tendency to snap roll when attempting a wall. A very slow transition from neutral elevator to full 3D throw would sometimes result in a departure from controlled flight with the plane tip stalling. This is not unusual, and I believe more stick time would result in a technique which would allow slow transitions and no tip stalls. There was simply not enough experimentation done in this area. We were testing the edges of the envelope in the limited 3D flying I have done, just not enough time to refine technique.

High alpha rolls were not a problem and the plane does a very nice job with them. In a stiff breeze the plane appeared to have no forward airspeed and lose no altitude during a series of high alpha rolls. High alpha rolling circles have also been done.

The rudder is extremely powerful. The 3D model was flown with a hitec digital hi-torque servo which is a standard form factor. I am unsure of the model number, Tom can provide this. This servo alone was plenty to drive the rudder in all aspects of flight with no noticeable blowback or fade. Slow speed knife edge flight is possible with the plane maintaining a 45 degree nose high attitude at ¼ throttle- about 15 knots airspeed- and 50%-75% of the available rudder throw. Additional power and rudder would result in knife edge loops, although my pucker factor rarely allowed me to complete the final 90 degrees of the loop as the plane headed earthward with high power in a knife edge. From high entries I was able to exit successfully. Knife edge figure eights are a piece of cake with this plane, always a crowd pleaser.


Torque rolls – this is where my expertise is a bit shallow. I had just gotten to the point I could confidently torque roll a 40% Aeroworks Giles at 10’ when I crashed it. The Aeroworks definitely dampened better in the pitch and yaw axis than the Wildhare, but the tail moment is much greater. I have only been able to get the Wildhare Giles stabilized in a hover a couple of times. The controls were set up very differently from the plane I was used to (I fly HEAVY expo and triple rates, with a throttle curve to flatten out the power curve for smoother power transitions in a hover), and the power to weight ratio of the Wildhare is greater than the Aeroworks I was flying. With a BME 102 the plane was hovering at ¼ throttle. A click or two of throttle and the plane was climbing with authority. I would use a flight mode to move the hover point to 50% stick throw, and flatten the curve out around 50% so moving the stick 1/8 throw up or down would result in a smaller power change on the engine. This allows a more precise hover in my opinion. Hovering at ¼ power with such a responsive throttle was difficult for me, just not what I was used to. I am sure the plane will hover well when set up correctly for the pilot, and a technique is evolved. The rudder and elevator are so powerful that overcontrolling was a problem while in a hover, needed more expo! I may have been able to coax a turn or two in a torque roll with the airplane, but being a testbed and not my plane, I kept it high, where it is difficult for me to see the subtle signals which indicate needed corrections. I also suspect we could have moved the CG much farther aft resulting in a more stable hover. Again, it is the pilot, not the plane. Unfortunately I crushed this 3D test airplane when the storage locker in my trailer fell on top of the fuselage. NO plane could have withstood that impact!

Overall I would rate the Wildhare G202 as a capable 3D airplane, but not one to campaign in a freestyle series! It is a very short coupled airplane, and does not dampen in pitch / yaw as well as some designs with a stretched fuselage. It is a good sequence airplane, a great sport plane, a good introduction to 3D and a spectacular hot dog/snap/tumble airplane.

Plus, it is pretty to look at.

David