Help me out, there is a Great Planes .40 airplane that I am looking at buying but not sure about. Here is the rundown on equipment:

Great Planes Extra 300S kit built (approx. 1 year old)
O.S. 46FX engine (approx. 1year old)
Radio is a Futaba 6XH (approx. 1 1/2 yr. old)

Question is I have heard that extras can be hard to handle, have a tendancy to snap with to much elevator and can be a hand full if brought in for a landing with low airspeed. This would be my third r/c plane that I have owned the first was a Sig Kadet Senior and the second was a FW 190 .60 size. Have not flown r/c plane in about ten years (took time off to get married and have 2 beautiful children). I am a commerical certified pilot my self but just wondering if this plane will be to much for my r/c flying experience. Trying to make a smooth return back to r/c flying. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks



Remember any landing you can walk away from is a good landing!


Hos

I've got this exact setup and LOVE this plane... the OS46 leaves something to be desired in the way of vertical, it definately wont hover or have unlimited vertical, but the 46 does a decent job. I find the plane extremely easy to land, and in fact have to drag it in on a shallow approach to kill off speed. It may snap with too much elevator, but I'm flying the recommended "high rates" and have yet to have it snap. Mine stalls nice and easy strait forward and lands just a bit faster than a trainer.... It is the best flying plane i have... I just returned to the hobby after 6 years away, practiced some with G2 and about 15 flights on a trainer, and then was flying the extra with no probs...

Plane not to twitchy on high rates? I heard it is not, can be set up to be pretty tame, but at the same time can do some nice aerobatics even with a .46 on the nose. Like you said though not great vertical or "hanging on the prop" qualities with this setup but not really looking for this on my return to r/c sport plane (not yet anyway). Do you have to mix much while doing knife edge manuevers? Heard this performs knife manuevers pretty well.


Hos

Nahh plane is pretty smooth on high rates.. I've got several compliments on the plane and how smooth it flies, it's on rails.. I do mostly scale type aerobatics, hammerheads, spins, cuban 8's, knife edge, inverted, it does all really well. Knife edge does require a small bit of up elevator but just a tiny bit, and inverted requires just a slight bit of down elevator. It knife edges pretty well, mine I only have low rate throw on the rudder and it will knife edge but you cant climb in a knife edge.. it will just hold a level flight.. I'm sure if I dialed in some more it would climb fine. I just got back from the field today and put 3 more flights on her.. I don't think you can go wrong with this plane, my only complaints are it's a little small (but hey it's a .40 size) and the wheel pants are horrible, mine only lasted 2 flying sessions of about 6 flights... oh yeah and I need more engine....

The equipment setup is descent, but the Futaba 6XH is a Heli Radio, and the 6XA is Airplane radio. The 6XH will work just as good for Plane, its just that the settings and such are in Heli Terms. No big deal, I just wanted to make sure that you knew that. Also the Plane will probally work fine for you, but I would make sure you have an experienced pilot take you up with a buddy box the first few flights if you have been away from the hobby that long. A guy could probally get pretty rusty over that many years. You may even want to consider taking a few trips up with a Trainer just to get some feel of the radio back. Below is a photo of my GP Extra 300S .40 waiting patiently for a new engine.

Patiently awaiting a new .72 Saito. I just wish they grew on trees!

I had a saito 91 in mine. It was my third plane. Flew the heck out of it. I needed to install a 1/8" shim under the front end of the landing gear to stop nose overs in grass. It flew where you pointed it and had no roll/pitch coupling!

You are correct the tx is the 6xh used for heli flight but seller says as you did that should not be a problem in this plane. He has flown with this system in the aircraft now since new (10 to 15 flights) with no issues. It has mixing and dual rates on it which is primarily what I would need for a/c use as well as ATV settings. I definetly will take up the assistance of an instructor but the thumbs seem to still be fresh on the control sticks (use G2 regularly) so hopefully I know when to push and when to pull.

Has anyone ever had an issue with the stock tailwheel? I have heard that while tough it has little spring/zero. Any problems encountered with this? Thanks again for the feedback and pictures from all, much appreciated this is helping me with my decision making process, everything looking pretty positive so far. Thanks


Hos

My 8103 is the heli version (cause i fly heli too) and I have no problem with throttle control.... I might be a little concerned if I went strait from sim to the extra without the trainer time in between... just to get the feel back of the real world flying.. I've had no probs with the rear tailwheel... there is no spring to it, it's not been an issue..

I've got the same plane/engine set up and concur with the pervious posts.

If you can try realfight G2, the Extra 300s on the add-on pack flies very close to the real thing.

Carl

I did not use the stock tailwheel, and went with a Sullivan .40 size Tailwheel Bracket, but thats not saying that the stock one may be just fine. I just don't like the thought of my Tailwheel Brackets hard mounted right to the rudder. I prefer the give and take of the Springs used on the Sullivan mount.

Camss69, great inflight photos of your bird. Did you guys use the stock mufflers with the engines or did you throw a pitts style on there? The stock muff a little quieter than the pitts? Though pitts muff I'm sure would fit the cowling a little bit better not as much dremeling I'm sure. Not sure that the wheel pants will be staying on I've heard the same thing about the pants cracking pretty easily as does the plastic cowling over time. The plane I'm looking at this weekend has had a fiberglass cowl placed on it as the original stock cowling cracked after maybe 7 flight or so.


Hos

I used the stock cowl for two years without cracks. You need to fit the blocks to the cowl and make sure the engine doesn't touch. I also added ca hinge material inside to back up the mounting holes.

I'm using the stock muffler, which from the side view is hardly noticeable, you can see it barely from the front but underneath the plane you can see the whole thing..., it's not really that bad and if you don't want to spring for a pitts muffler the stock one is mostly hidden excpet from the bottom view. (see photo below) The secret to keeping the cowl from cracking is to keep all your cuts into the cowl rounded at the corners... no jagged cuts or square cuts... that's where the crack will start.. I just used a dremel for the whole process.. oh and fit the mounting blocks well, sand them to match the contour of the cowl... so far i've got about 40 flights on her and the cowl is still ok... knock on wood....