I've just received this plane from Giant Scale Planes. Had a good look and decided its a keeper and I will start assembly. Anyone out there with experience with this model who could offer some advice or comments.

TIA

I've got the earlier silver and green GSP P-47 that's about a year old. I'm not sure if the newer GSP model is the same, but here are my thoughts on mine. I'm a bit slow, even with an ARF, and just recently got around to putting it together.
- The aileron servos have to be low profile. On mine, the plastic servo cover won't fit over the normal size Hitech servos. I went with a pair of Expert mini servos that I've had good luck with in other airplanes. A bit lighter as well.
- I've installed mechanical retracts and have significantly beefed up the mounting area. I'd do the same if I was going with the stock fixed gear too. The majority, if not all of the gear bracing is attached to the wing sheeting and the foam. A club member has the smaller GSP P-47 with retracts and I saw his first landing. Everything looked good until the wheels actually touched the ground then they BOTH just folded back. He rebuilt the mounts usung heavy fiberlass reinforncements and has been flying problem free for about 6 months.
- The retract servo mounting system included with the kit is pretty ridiculous. I just hollowed out more foam in the area and built a "standard" mount for it.
- I glued hardwood blocks inside the fuselage where the canopy mounting screws attach.
- The plane's fit and finish appears excellent. The canopy fits beautifully as does the rather beefy cowl. The wing halves and the horizontal stab fit perfectly and were held with 30 min epoxy. The push rod fuselage exit points depicted in the rather sparse, but industry average, instruction sheets didn't work for me. I replaced all of the horns with World Model hardware and the push rods with carbon fiber.
- I just purchased a Saito 150 and hope to get it in this week.
Hope this helps.
Dave

Hello Dave,

Just saw your reply to my post. Thanks for the comments. I presume you've flown the model by now. Hows it fly?
Did you balance yours at the location indicated? I am almost finished with mine. Will use an Enya 1.50 four stroke. The model has some good points and not so good. I did not like the horizontal stabilizer, found it difficult to install in good alignment. But overall I like the model. It looks very nice.

thanks,
Jerry

Jabowil, sorry I never got back to you. I'm in the Navy and was suddenly "needed" elsewhere. Just got back a few weeks ago and haven't flown mine since I left in April. I don't know if you still have your GSP P-47 but I've still got mine. I planted mine on my first flight back in the early spring. All went as well as could be expected until I started a loop a bit too close to the ground. As I came down the back side I thought the ground was coming up a bit too fast. The ensuing pull must have snap rolled the plane when it was about level, and caught me by surprise, it did about two turns and hit. Ripped the wing out of the fusegage and broke a few plywood fuselage formers. After about a week of staring at it I bought a fiberglass repair kit and went to town. The wing came out as one piece so it was really a matter of rebuilding the wing hold down areas. I built new formers out of beefier plywood and glessed these in. So far its had about 10 flights since the rebuild and although its not too pretty, it flies OK. This was my first larger warbird and the first flight taught me not to fly it like its a sport plane. Hope you like yours and let me know if you have any specific questions/advice. Happy flying.