Does anyone else have this plane, monocote look's good the box is light I will start puting it together tommorow.this is the first ARF I have had to drill the firewall and install blind nuts for the engine mount.if anyone is interested I keep posting on my progress.
Greg

It's likely a lite-ply firewall, so just drill your holes
with the recommended bit (and in the recommended spot).
Push the blind nuts just enough so they stay in place,
and then tighten the bolts: this will pull the blind nuts
tight to the firewall. A little dab of medium CA or 5 min
epoxy around the edges of the nuts will keep them from
shifting later. Don't be tempted to try some kind of
hammer operation !!

Have Fun, FrankB

Looks like a great little plane. Let me know how it flies....

Mike

Flies, good with a 46 FX on it. Tracks well in large loops.
You will have to cut off the wing mounting bolt over the rudder control rod, its too long and binds the rod.
Measure the engine location before you drill the mounts. Either the measurement in the manual is wrong or they sent me a short cowl. Had to move mine back 3/8".
Placed the battery under the fuel tank as far forward as possible, and still had to add 3 oz of weight to get to recommended CG. Having engine forward that 3/8" would have helped.
Sure I will think of a few other things later.
Ed M.

A few more things to add:
Stalls forward and has very good landing characteristics.
The landing gear is thin. The weight of the plane deflects it enough to add camber to the tires.
Takes very little rudder to knife edge.
Inverted did take a little more down elevator than I had hoped. Will try moving the CG back slightly.
Throw rates are OK as shown in the manual, but go with the listed high rates on elevator and rudder if your radio does not have dual rates. Think I will set the low rates to the high recommendations on elevator and add a little more to the high rate.
You will need more down elevator that up, maybe more than shown in the manual, not sure at this time.
Ed M.

I glued the wing together and with a good glue joint I only got 1 5/16 diheadral instead of 2 and 5/16 wing dowels did not fit into W2 had to file them so the wing would fit down into the saddle.
I measured my cowl it's about 5 1/16 long with 1/2 in.going over the fuse. and 1/8in. of the engine sticking out this puts the engine mounting location at 4 7/16 instead of 4 15/16 as stated in the manual. I am going to put a GMS 47 in this plane did you mount your engine inverted or to the side? I may even try to mount it in the 8 o'clock pos. depends on the muffler I am also going to look at my TT 46 to see if the muffler fits any better(I know they have the same bolt pattern) it will take at least a couple of weeks for me to finish this plane. Greg

MIne came up slightly shy of the recommended diheadral. Engine was mounted inverted as shown in the manual. Mounting slightly rotated would get the muffler out the hole precut in the front of the fuse and leave you with less cleanup not to mention less drag from the muffler.
Ed M.

I just received mine last night. All that I can say is WOW!

I have been flying a Tiger2 (since last September) and have been looking at getting something a little more "pattern" like. I looked at the GP Tracer for a while, but then the Venus appeared. Since I am already neck-deep in kits to build (and I do *love* building-- just finishing a GP 40-size CAP and have a CG Extra just waiting) I decided to do something that I never thought I would-- buy an ARF.

Here are my thoughts (after just opening the box):

THE GOOD:

- The weight: Man this thing is light! The wing looks like typical construction (D-tube, sheeting, lightening-holes in ribs) but seems very light (and absolutely no flex). The fuse also looks like typical (all wood) construction, although the formers appear to be a bit less than 1/8" lite-ply (maybe 3/32"?). The tail-feathers are beautiful-- the rudder appears to be built-up (you can see light through the Monokote), but has a lovely taper (airfoil) to it! The elevator also has this taper.

- The covering: Ok, I am certainly not a Monokote expert but I am amazed at this covering job. I spent an hour last night just trying to figure out how they did it! It is amazing. And absolutely NO WRINKLES out of the box!


THE BAD:

- My cowl has a tiny "chip" right on the very top (like the fiberglass was poked upward before painting). It's not horrible, but it messed-up an otherwise perfect plane.

- The gear is very light, but does look like it would flex under load.


THE UGLY:

- Ok, the thing that you cannot see from all the pictures of the plane (in the ads, anyway) is that the entire bottom of the wing is... PINK! I was a little taken aback at first, but it really is growing on me... that doesn't make me weird, does it?


Anyway, for my first ARF, I am absolutely blown away. I might actually buy another with quality like this (and no, I am in absolutely no way connected to Great Planes)... Honestly, I cannot imagine a better built or covered plane. Great job, GP!

P.S. If anybody is interested I could keep track of progress and post a review in a few weeks (complete w/ pictures, of course!).

Please post some pics of it. I wondered what the bottom of the wing looked like, they never showed it in the ads.

What have your completed weights been ready to fly? And with what engine combos?

How large are the movable surfaces (aileron and tail).

Hi Gang, I also purchased a Venus 40. I will have to agree the plane came out of the box beautifully. I already have the wing completed which went very well, no glitches. I just installed the rudder and elevator stabs and getting ready to put on the flying surfaces. I can hardly wait to fly it. Thanks for some of the problems you ran into about engine installation. I am putting a Thunder Tiger 46 in mine.

Rudder Phil

If you like the way it looks you will like the way it flies even more.
I went back and added some blocks to the front of the firewall and moved the engine and cowl back up to location spec in manual, no difference in flying.
The covering does look great out of the box, just be ready to tighten it up after a few flights.
Just put in a lady pilot to go with the pink wings.
Have a little over 6 hours flying time on mine now and have only had to rebend the landing gear one time, no its not sturdy, and no i'm not that great of a pilot, it just lands that good, even in the wind.
Anybody at/going to Joe Nall? Never seen so many RC planes in one place.
Ed M.

Thanks for the info. I will try to land soooothly as possible. Im sorry to here about the gear, just have to be careful. When I first saw it advertised I just had to have it ha ha! May you many happy hours of flying with it.


Rudder Phil

I am planning to start building (assembling?) this weekend. I'll try to remember to take some pictures along the way.

I am planning to go with a Saito .72 in mine (although it does seem light enough that a .46FX would do fine). Anybody have any trouble balancing yet with a "heavier" engine?

The size of the control surfaces look great, although I realize that the intent of this plane is not "3D." Again, I simply cannot believe that the rudder (which is obviously built-up, not just a sheet) actually has an airfoil shape to it! The elevator is also airfoiled (tapered), but it is solid.

After reading through the manual last night, I am wondering how others attached the horizontal stab. Since it "slides in" (from the side of the fuse) how could there ever be any epoxy *inside* to make a strong connection. And I don't want to use CA (with the lite-ply there).

I sure wish GP offered this in a 60-2C/90-4C version. About 66 inch span would be about right. Even a builders kit would be nice.

Sometimes you can insert the horizontal stab all the way so it's centered, apply epoxy to it through the rudder slot, then slide it around in there so the epoxy works its way around. Pin it in place (squared away), then apply more epoxy in the vert fin slot, and install the vert fin, pin it in place (squared away) and be done with it.

Sometimes I just glue the horizontal stab in place with Med CA if there is enough visibility/access through the rudder slot and the wood is soft enough to absorb it.

If neither of these two techniques sound good enough, then just follow the directions.

It doesn't take much glue to hold the stab/vert fin in place as long as it's a nice fit.

Adrian

There is not but a couple tenths of an ounce difference in the weight of a 46FX and a Saito 72. Either could be heavier/lighter than the other depending on the particular engine. Having thoughts of putting a spare 72 I have on hand in another one just as a comparison. The 46 with an 11x7 Master Airscrew prop will not give unlimited verticle, but its high enough that all you see is a speck.

I simply coat the inside of the fuse, particularly front and rear corners and the entire surface where the moneycoat was cut off the hor. stab with epoxy, slide it in, measure it to be square with the wing and fuse, pin it in place then remeasure to make sure I didn't mess up, then clean up the excess with paper towel'S and alcohol. Messy yes, but have never had one come unglued.
Verticle stab is done the same way.

how about a .61fx? would this make it too nose heavy. you could add ballast to the tail, but that ups the overall weight. not sure if that would affect this plane.

the reason I ask is that a had this .61 in a GP tracer. flew the plane well but needed the battery all the way back. do these two planes compare? I liked the tracer but wouldnt build one again

thanks

Hubb

Bentgear,

Will you be at the MMRC fly-in June 1-2? I'm thinking about getting one and would love to look at it/see it fly.

matlok,

should be up there parts of both days and will try and hang around the first day for the night flying.


Hubb,

Since its tail heavy anyway it might work out fine.

Ed M.

Here is a shot of all the (major) parts as the plane comes out of the box. You can see the wonderful PINK wing-bottoms here (note that the bottom of the horizontal-stabilizer matches the wing bottom).

I also noticed that the horizontal and vertical stabs are double-beveled (ailerons, unfortunately, are not)!

Thanks for all the suggestions about gluing the stab in place. Sounds like it shouldn't be a big problem.

I can not get the wheel pants to work as shown. The alignment is off and I have tried many combinations of washers/spacers. Anyone else having this problem? The wheel rubs against the pants and seems to me to have a very low clearance?

Thanks,

Craig:

Go with one wheel collar and one washer inside the wheel pant, file or grind a flat spot on the 8/32 axle and crank the wheel collar set screw down tight. This lines the wheels up perfectly in the pants.

I may get to fly mine tomorrow if I can finish mounting the cowl in the a.m. I did mine slightly differently than recommended.

Antony