Put it up for sale! You'll have a line out the door waiting to buy it! It's a great flying plane so don't let the instruction manual scare you out of powering it up! Trust me, all you need to do is mount the engine and use as little or much throttle as you want.

Has anyone had any problems with the wing breaking in half whille flying today on the third flight of my brand new plane i pulled up to loop and wing broke in half, i managed to land it with minimal damage to fuse but wing looks very poorly instructed there is no very strong spar made out of plywood only a light one that doesnt even reach the first rib and it has lightening holes in it. before it crashed it broke though the plane was flying great. but i cant decide should i order a new wing or fix the old wing if I cant get great planes to replace it, do you think they will?


happy flying,
thanks

Hi in da sky,

Hmmm, the same thing happened to me today.

I flew it straight up, cut the throttle to idle and let is spin. About 1/2 down there was a violent flutter. I immedately landed. The first thing I noticed was the 4/40 control rod I use on the Aileron was really bent. I loaded up the plane and went home. I haven't taken off the monokote yet but I can feel the cracks in the balsa wood on the leading edge of the wing. My failure occured on the left side of the wing leading edge between where the sevo mounts and the fuselage. Did yours fail there too? Do you think great planes will back this failure?

Regards,

Scooterpilot

mine broke on that same side also near the same place. i hope the gp will back this failiure. because i blew all my money on the best for this plane. and cant afford much more because im only 15 with no real job

thanks for telling me

Sorry to hear about your wing failures. Keep us up to date as to GP response. I would think they replace your wings for n/c.

hopefully, they will figure out the UCANDO 46 issues and correct them.

Just got through rippin' my OS 61 FX out of this plane and stuffin' my brand new Saito 91 into it!

One Side...

...t'other side. Had to cut some off the engine mount to avoid interference with the carburetor.

..under belly. It turn out you get a straight shot to the glow plug because of the factory cut out in the bottom of the fuse.

.. and for those who think the fuse is spacious....

That big honkin' blue thing on the right is a 1500 maH battery pack (four sub-C cells).

The Saito .91 is a whoppin' 1/2 pound lighter than the OS .61 FX!

Yep, certified by my postal scale.

With the Saito and this big battery, I'm still 3/4 inch behind the recommended CG.

I sent an email to Tower hobbies and I'm now waiting for a response. If anyone else has had a wing failure and GP corrected the problem, please let me know how you did it.

If the email does not give me a response then I guess I'm going to have to call tower hobbies and see what's going on?



Regards,

Scooterpilot

I flew my ucando for the first time Friday and within 20 seconds after takeoff while adjusting the trims at half throttle the plane suddenly went crazy.The President of our club was standing next to me and yelled something just broke. I tried to regain control and noticed the elevators seemed to be flapping around. My first thought was a connecting rod had come off. I fought the plane all the way to the ground and was able to slow it down until the last five feet where it stalled and broke in half on impact. After looking at the plane it was obvious what had happed. The elevators and connecting rods were still connected to the stab and servos but the side of the fuselage where the stab slides into had completely failed and split apart. The stab along with the elevators was rocking up and down within the fuselage.The stab is only supported by the sides of the fuse which is double 5/32 balsa and the first layer of balsa has a series of holes just above the stab to cut down on weight. The balsa was very brittle and spongy. I even had try stock glued under the stab on both sides of the fuse which held to the broken pieces.Ill be calling GP Monday. I would recommend tail wire supports.I took pictures and will try to post them.

Heres another pic

Guys it sounds like you all got a bad batch of UCANDO's. I'm curious to know if you all ordered and received planes around the same date. If you can get some information and take it to Great Planes you might make a good case.

As for my UCANDO, I've tried my hardest to make it fail but it seems to be tough as nails..Rodney

That's a good point. I ordered my on 6-20-03 and received it the week of 23 June 03.

Regards
Scooterpilot

I got mine from the local hobby shop July 11. I don't think it really matters what date you receive yours.You should at least be able to fly the plane beyond takeoff without it falling apart. I didn't even get a chance to complete a half circle around the field during level flight at mid throttle.I own the 60 size and love the plane, thats why I bought the 46 size.I hope GP backs it up.

If it's the wing that is failing ... it's clearly GP's fault and should be covered as the wing comes in 1 piece. As far as the tail section, it may be questionable because of faulty assembly by the owner. Either case ... stop at nothing to get a new unit. If they say "no" just keep calling till you get the right person. I know Horizon would cover this in a minute. I never had to deal with Tower or GP yet.

Please report back to us your conversations with Tower/GP tomorrow!

I contacted GP this morning. They asked that I return the wing along with a letter of explaination. They will replace the wing.

Regards

Scooterpilot

Was the entire plane destroyed? If so, are they still only going to replace just the wing?

Well mine finally arrived....after reading through all of these post i was skeptical, but it seems to be in pretty good shape other than a few pieces of scrap wood falling out of the fuse...i can't see where they were attached, if they even were see pic...i will go through and check with a mirror real close.....i can see that there will be some "support" needed in areas, especially wing mount, and landing gear block.....i have the flip sitting on the building table in the other room...the ailerons and the rudder will fit on either one without many mods...hmmmmm....

Now if I can just decide on which engine for this one...i have both the saito72 and the os50sx.....i will be using all digitals and ball bearing clevises with carbon fiber/titanium rods...so for that added weight i am leaning toward the 72....but then again the ease of the 50 is very appealing....

GP will replace the wing. I was lucky as I was able to land the model after the wing failed so the fuselage is fine. But it sounds like GP is going to send me a whole new kit. I had 4/40 rod on the Aileron and I couldn't believe how badly it was bent. I'm glad I decided to upgrade the control rods when I assembled the model.

The guy at GP made a comment: If they find out there's two many failures to the model they will pull the model from inventory.

Regards,

Scooterpilot

Just thought you might like to know I stripped the servo gears on the Ailerons because of the violent flutter when the leading edge of the wing fractured. I was using 9202 servos. I think if it were not for the servos the model would have been a total loss.


Regards,

Scooterpilot

this airplane, like the flip3d....is built very fragile (light) for the purpose of 3D capability that is near ZERO airspeed for almost everything other than take-off.....For some reason great planes is not emphasizing this as much as the kyosho manual does on the flip....i know after reading all of this i will definetely be not throttle cautious but airspeed cautious on all manuvers....i think it will be a blast....

well i have to say i have run 14x6 prop on 80 4 stroke and i have tried my hardest to break the plane. full throttle, full deflection moves and it's held together just fine. i think it must be just a bad batch of planes.

I think this may also be a shipping issue, My wing had 2 busted ribs, right next to the servo mounts. This seems to be where the wings are breaking. Maybe great planes needs to put it in a bigger more padded box. I am glad i decided to re-cover mine, Now it gets some carbon laminate on the spars and im thinking of cris-crossing kevlar thread over and under each rib. Also the firewall is getting glassed to the fuse, which IMO should have been done by great planes. I can see trying to make the plane light, but take weight off of other areas besides the firewall.



Dylan