Hi,

I bought a GP Big Stik ARF (.40 sized) recently. I completed the ARF & installed the gear in about 8 hours. I found the instructions to be clear. The kit was missing a couple of pieces - the fuel tank, and the nylon wing screws. The only error that I found was the recommended drill bit for the wing dowels was a bit too large. The only change I made was to build the plane as a tail dragger & not a trike.

After completing the installation of the engine & radio gear I brought the plane outside to spin up the new Surpass 70 4-stroke. I fueled her up, and applied the electric starter. As soon as the engine started off came the firewall! Luckily the engine stopped immediately, and no damage occurred. I inspected the firewall and from what I could see it was only glued on left hand side. I triangle stocked the inside and expoxied the thing back on. After this I checked out the remainder of the plane. The left wing hold down had almost no glue either and was falling off. I repaired this with a nice helping of epoxy.

The good news is that after these changes the plane flies nicely. The bad news is that I don't have alot of confidence in the quality of the remainder of the kit (it's tough to see the other joints since it's all covered).

Hopefully this thing will not come apart in mid-air. To be sure if the firewall would have hung on until the first flight the plane would have almost certainly been totally destroyed.

Matthew

I have one and found it to be very durable and well put together. The firewall on mine does have triangle stock on it and is quite sturdy. I have the regular version, not the monokote.

mathewnewhook

Well i'll tell you what ive seen with these arfs...
Raskco has 2 of them.. the traditional one( red) and the modern..
He flew the modern one for quite awhile and believe me he is very hard on airplanes.. Anyways after a billion flights on it, the plane needed a new covering job. When we stripped the covering off we noticed that most of the ribs in the wing were barely glued at all. Some had none! I couldn't believe it lasted that long without glue.. The firewall was just hanging by a thread as well..

I wonder about GP arfs sometimes.. And believe me guys, those 2 weren't the only ones we found those problems with..

I'm not bashing GP because they do have nice products but after all these examples of poor quality in these arfs it shows that alot of the "low end" arf manufacturers are not that far apart...

I've had cheap arfs that outlasted the expensive ones...

HELLO BIG STICK PILOTS,
I BOUGHT THE OLDER STYLE 60 SIZE KIT VERSION A LITTLE OVER A YEAR AGO. THE GUY I BOUGHT IT FROM ALREADY HAD THE FUSE BUILT.I JUST HAD TO BUILD THE WING.I LATER INSTALLED THE FULTS NOSE GEAR FOR THOSE HARD LANDINGS.WELL ON ABOUT ITS THIRD FLIGHT I BROUGHT IT IN A LITTLE FAST AND THE FIREWALL WAS PULLED OUT WHEN THE NOSE WHEEL WAS BENT BACK. I LATER INSTALLED THE FIRE WALL WITH TIRAGLE STOCK AND HAD 1/4 IN. KEVLAR STRIP'S EPOXIED TO THE FIREWALL AND TRIAGLE STOCK.THEN I EXPOXIED FIBERGLASS CLOTH OVER THE KEVLAR STRIPPS.ON THE WING I CUT THE MONOCATE 2 INCHE OFF EACH SIDE OF THE CENTER SECTION AND EPOXIDE KEVLAR TAPE STRIPS DOWN THE CENTER OF THE WING BOTH TOP & BOTTOM, THEN RECOVERED THE CENTER SECTION OF THE WING.THE RESULTS WHERE GREAT!! I'VE SINCE THE I HAVE HAD A FEW HARD LANDING ON PERPOSE AND THE FIREWALL NEVER BUDGED BUT BENT THE NOSE GEAR RIGHT ABOVE THE LANDING GEAR SPRING COIL. TOOK IT OFF AND STRAIGHTENED IT IN A VISE. OTHER FABRICATIONS I'VE DONE IS USED 1/2 IN TRIAGLE STOCK AND EPOXIED TO WHERE THE HORIZONTAL STAB MEETS THE FUSE AND THE SAME WITH THE VERTICLE STAB.I COVERED THE TRIAGLE STOCK WITH MATCHING MONOCOATE BEFORE GLUING THEM ON. JUST MAKE SURE YOU RE-BALANCE THE PLANE TO MAKE SURE ITS NOT TAIL HEAVY. THIS REALLY GAVE MY TAIL FEATHERS A LOT OF STRANGTH AND I'VE HAVEN'T HAD ANYTHING COME LOOSE SINCE.
NEDYOB

Adding triangle stock to the tail feathers sounds like a good idea. Mine seem all too flexible.

I put one of these together for a clubmate a while back. I pinned the firewall with toothpicks and epoxy. No other modifications were necessary - this is a very solid ARF.

It held up OK but he finally broke the firewall loose after one nose-low landing too many.

I peeled back the covering, reattached the firewall and reinforced the entire nose structure with panty-hose and thin laminating epoxy. Don't laugh untill you've tried it - this works great!

That repair held up wonderfully until he got disoriented and crashed it short of the field. Broke off the nose (as a solid unit) just before the front of the wing saddle, busted up the wing.

He's retired it.

I flew mine with an Enya .80 2 stroke on it. It did fine. That's 2.2 hp.