After looking around for the right price and sized Extra I finally ordered the CMPro 1.40 Extra from Chief. List price 219.99 I asked if they would match GSP's 199.99 price as I did not want to risk purchasing through them after reading several posts here. They agreed without hesitation, took my info, and shipped the bird on Monday. I'm pleased to say FedEx ground delivered today, and on initial inspection everything looks good. Chief plainly marked the box as fragile, and top load only. Shipping cost to San Diego for a 19lb box was 21.xx and is on track with FedEx's price so I'm sure I wasn't overcharged.

Opening the big brown box revealed the planes full color box. This would be a nice touch however the cardboard is thin, the images are blurry, and the box construction weak. I pulled off the top and 3 of the major joints of the box snapped with no real force applied. At this point I'm a bit worried. However looking inside the box I find a nicely packed ARF. Each piece bagged and wrapped in a sheet of thin packing foam. The major parts secured with cardboard pieces holding both ends. Cowl, hardware, tank all in seperated compartments, wheel pants inside the cowl, again individually wrapped. Nicely done CMP. Conclusion : Well packed inside, poor outer packaging, great experience with Chief.

Covering...

Ok there's good and bad here. The covering is fairly transparent, especially the red on the belly side of the wings. That being said... this stuff makes a frog's a$% look lose! very tight, not a wrinke to be found. I'm impressed considering the number of GP, ModelTech, Global ARFs I have had that all had horrible wrinkles. The paint on the cowl matches nicely and the blue canopy doesn't look too bad from the pics I thought it would be cheesy, but now that I see it... not bad at all. [8D]

Quality...

So far I can't complain... I am planning on squeezing some extra CA in a few places but nothing I wouldn't do on a GP ARF. Lightly built, nice and big, thick airfoils, looks good. Nothing rattling around in the wings, or the fuse. Again this is preliminary just overlooking it for 30 mins.

Hardware...

I'm throwing it all away. I will be using Du-Bro and Rocket City hardware throughout. Of particular note the main gear...This thing is going to make a fine doorstop. I'm all for strength in a gear, just not at the expense of half as much as the plane weighs.

Manual...

This thing is a joke... good toilet read fo humor, not informative at all.
Thats all for now.

Got to spend more time with my ARF last night. I'm really pretty pleased with it so far.

I cut the covering for the wing tubes, canopy tray and servo mounts.
I test fit the H-stab and it fit perfectly, no gaps, tube in snug but not too tight to make it difficult. The wing tube was a different story, going to have to do some sanding I think. anlhough I am considering a CF tube. (anyone reccomend a good company?)

I'm not happy with the way the wing mounts, 2 hooks in each wing half that are held with springs in the fuse. I'd like some feedback on this as I'm thinking a small ply reinforcement on the inside of the fuse and using nylon bolts ala GP Patty style. If anyone has a Patty and can send pics I'd appreciate it. I was also thinking of making the tailfeathers removable instead of fixxed as well. As it is it has an alum tube and an alum alignment pin... shouldn't be too hard to tap the tube for cap head bolts.

I guess the only other issue I need to solve is what to hang on the nose of this bird. I see someone else planning on a Saito 1.80. I was looking at the OS 1.60 or the Supertigre. I'm not looking for 3D just IMAC basic and if I have the power to spare, smoke. So feel free to let me know your thoughts.

I'm thinking that maybe you have a different covering than mine because mine is very opaque. I agree though about the manual what a joke but hey at least they mention to use epoxy on the wing joints. Ha ha ha . On the wing mounting I opted for the pins and socket head cap screw vs. the springs. Springs looked a little rusty and untrusty... I really liked the tail feathers though, simply mount the pins cut back the covering slide onto the tube and epoxy... Wow. Any thoughts on the cowl or canopy yet???? I'm contemplating 6-32 nylon with a blind nut down the sides of the canopy and thats it. Canopy fits vey very well. And as for the engine, this model without engine and radio gear only weighs about 6 or 6 1/2 lbs I think that maybe a saito 180 could be an overkill. I may go ahead and use my saito 150 instead. I want to keep it lite and well balanced help keep the wing loading down. Also did you notice how much wider the landing gear slot was than the actual gear? I'm going to fill it with something. Maybe silocone. Also on the fiberglass landing struts I wanted normal axles so I drilled and tapped mine for the axle and then installed the pants and axle with a little 5 min epoxy on the axle threads seems to work like a charm and no cheesy flimsy socket heads for axles. If you have any tips please pass them on I will be curious to hear your ideas. Adios for now . Will

The covering is the American flag, I think its the only one available... I'll try and snap a few pics but I can see the sheeting through it. Not noticable at more than 5ft so no big deal really, just something I noticed.

Motor selection, Saito 1.50 sounds good, but I was thinking AUW would be near 13 so was planning on a 1.60 2 stroke. I'm sure you'll be flying before me so let me know how that works I might go with a 1.50 as well being that 4 strokers are better smokers from what I've seen.

I'll have to check the manual again, I didn't realize it was an option to use the screwes instead of the springs, rather I thought they were both required, hence the idea to ditch the springs and hooks and place nylon bolts instead.

I did notice the oversized gap in the landing gear channel... and I'm having to ditch that gear for CF... to me, it just looks wrong, feels way too heavy for my liking.

The rear feathers fit perfectly like you said, and I like the setup a lot better than previous .40-.60 size birds where you have to slide the stab covered in epoxy through a slit and clean the mess later. The tube and alignment pins are spot on and I hope more companies adopt this. As I said earlier, I want them to be removable if it can be done without compromising flight safty or stability. I just think the size of this bird needs it. I have a Sequoia to haul it in but am considering a ne car next year thats a lot smaller and I dont want to have to buy a sealed roof rack, or a trailer.

Anyway so far so good, glad to see that people are giving this plane the credit it deserves despite the infamous customer service of a couple of distributors.

I have decided to mount a 180 in this just to see what it will do with an 18x6 I hope it will not be too much... FYI my servo holes for the elevators were very snug actully had to trim them to get servo's to fit. well I'll make this short needing sleep.

I have just finished off my 65" CMPro extra 330s.. and i am also extremly happy with the overal plane. Quality and build are excellent, covering is very nice, and it looks awesome! I have gone for an O.S. 1.08 in mine.. and have found it to be nose heavy atm even after going for dual elevator servos in the tail instead of the single, and even after changing to 4*40 rods and metal clevis's in the tail.. so it looks like i'm going to have to wack some lead in the tail Thankfully i have the tiny JR 700 receiver so its super light and small, but even with my RX pack and onboard glow battery mounted at the back of the hatch under the wing mount bolts its still heavy to the nose without fuel.. so i am going to squash some fishing sinkers and epoxy them to the inside of the rudder servo access panel. See how that goes.. It does seem a bit heavier than the stated 8-9lbs tho.. but i guess this is to be expected when you run a bigger engine, metal spinner etc.. lucky i fitted the Bisson Pitts or it would have come in heavier again :S

I'm going to do a few run in tanks tomorrow to see how she goes, and fingers crossed i want to maiden her on monday as its a public holiday

Freestyln

Make sure you report back when you fly. I've liked the look of this plane since it came out. However I have doubts about the weights of these CMPro planes. Have recently seen one of the 50 katana with a 61 in it. Long story short.. too heavy plane with small wings made for just about a vertical decent with a deadstick. The plane just had not glide what so ever so this has made me wary of these planes and putting bigger motors in them. People will say yeah but they can hover... true, but I'd like to be able to land it with out getting a speeding fine.

Stiks: I dont think its that heavy.. imean it is a 120 size plane with a 1.08 in it.. but the weight of the 1.08 is only 50-100gms heavier than the Magnum or OS 120 which they recomend.. it may even be the same weight i am carrying as i have a Pitts on it which is a lot lighter than the stock muffler.. but either way it is a tad nose heavy atm.. and i cant shift the battery any further so i will have to add a tad of lead to the tail.. however to my astonishment.. we dont even have scales at home!! ha ha ah well gunna have to get mum to go pur-chase some so i can weigh it in and post a figure.. i'm guessing 10lbs.. but im not sure thos bout what you said bout the deadsticks.. a few guys down at my club fly the katana 50 with OS 50sx's in them and they have both been deadsticking alot and have both came in fine.. i guess the 61 is a tad heavier but shouldn't make much difference... all's i know is that my Extra has a very large wing area so i'm guessing it wont be too bad.. but then again.. not many low wings dead stick well anyway.. they aren't made to.. hence why have fitted an on board glow system to help reduce the risk of deadsticks during the rich run in period and also during low idle flight.

Did some higeing last night, Tossed out the CA hinges in favor of some heavy-duty Du-Bro nylons. Also picked upi 2 sets of Du-Bro heavy duty control horns for elevator halfs and ailerons, (part 866) and the heavy duty rudder control horn (part 800). I know everyones thinking "build light" but with the motor I finally settled on I should be more than ok as well as grateful for the added security.

I'm ordering the RCS 140 gasser for this bird. should give me all the power I need and then some. After considering the cost of glow fuel at 15.00 a gallon for a 1.80 4 stroke vs gas at 2.50 a gallon I was sold. Also with the more economic gas motor I should be able to get by with a smoke system fairly easily.

Saito FA-180 4-stroke 29.1cc 1.94lbs 2.80hp
RCS RCS 140 Gas 1.4 23cc 2 lbs 2.95hp
RCS RCS 180 Gas 1.8 29cc 3.25lbs 4.00hp


Looking at mounting the wings tonight, I wish they had predrilled the alignment pin holes. It's as if they started to on the wing halves then stopped, and No work on the stab.

Off to work.

Mine was the same with wing mounting, you have to do it yaself.. which was to me a bit silly.. but as long as you go by the measurements its not to bad tho.

BlaizeSD:

If you haven't ordered that engine yet, I'd suggest that you do some homework. The first rule of engine buying is to NEVER believe the horsepower figures in the ads.

It is physically impossible for a 23cc gas engine to make more horsepower than a 29cc glow engine. It would be a very well designed 23cc gas engine if it were making over HALF the horsepower of the 29cc Saito.

What matters is how fast it will turn a prop. Do some searches and ask some questions on the engine forum here and you will save yourself some major "buyers remorse".

Jim

hey Blaize I think you'll find that the pin holes are there its just that the rib material used to attach the wing tube. Probably a design change do to the problems they had with the Katana. Anyway put wing tube in and follow the angle of the tube and eureka you'll find the socket. I mounted my engine, cowl.

I am looking at a CMPro extra 140 size,
does any one know of thier web address

OK now I have some time to write a little bit. First, wing pins, these are hidden but they are there. Waht I foung was that if you put the wing tube in and drill in the pin area at the same angle as the tube you will find the socket for the alignment pin. I have now mounted the engine, cowl and canopy. The Saito 180 fits beautifully and with the radio gear and hardware I'm weighing in around 11# pounds dry. SWEEEEEETTT!!!! I put my engine mount on with a piece rubber behind it to absorb some of the vibration. The cowling was mounted simply by using 6-32 nylon screws with a brass inserts in the fuse. I only used six screws total 3 on each side. I drilled into the small tab with the angle stock behind it and put in a brass threaded insert and glued it, I used a simular method with the canopy but I used blind nuts instead and 5 on each side.

Hello Fella's,

I have just bought a GSP 300S 72.5'' aka Chief Aircraft 300S 72.5'' Extra. I HAVE A YS140DZ that I plan on mounting in the engine. I have a Fromeco 2400 MAH battery and A Fromeco Regulator. I am am also using 5 5645's from Hitec at 168. oz @ 6.0v's. My main question is the manual is recommending 3 servos in the tail. 2 for the elevators and 1 for the rudder. Doesn't 6 ounces in the tail seem too much for this plane? Is the YS heavy enough to balance out CG wise? Should I run a pull pull form inside the fuselage? This is a plane that I decided to buy just to fly instead of my composite 2.6. I have alot of $$$ in my big bird and although I love it to death I kind of wanted another plane to beat the Sh*t out of and practice those low to the ground rolling harriers. I want to set this plane up right, but the instructions don't help out at all.

Any suggestions???

[link]http://www.giantscaleplanes.com/Extra300_72.pdf[/link]

It doesn't make sense....

craZaboutplns: I have the smaller brother the 65" CMPro Extra, which is the same as the GSP 65" one, and it recomended the same set up, and i was a tad worried about being tail heavy also.. however i decided to go duel elev servo's instead of 1 and the rudder is mounted in the tail hatch as with the 72".. i also ran 4*40 push rods with metal clevis' on the tail instead of the 2*52 with nylons they supplie with the kit.. running an OS 1.08 with bisson pitts, 15*6 and metal spinning i came out nose heavy by a bit. Even despite the added weight i had in the tail with the extra servo and thicker push rods. I ended up having to make a custom hatch and mount for my RX batt in the tail and this helped a lot but i still needed about 60gm's in the tail to balance it out.

Today was my first maiden.

Well for the most part the wind was 15-25mph. It sucked. I couldn't really tell if the plane was flying well or not because I was getting pushed around so much. I decided to go with the pull pull in the fuselage and it still didn't want to land when I came down. It seemed tail heavy. I'm going to wait for the weather to cooperate with me so that I can try again. I was spinning a 16 x 4 W and I had 11,000 RPMS. Crazy!!! I have a 17 x 4 W I am going to put on to slow my YS-140 down.

How did it go with the 140dz did it have plenty of power?
i have ordered the same plane and going to use the same engine.
I know from past expiereance this engine spun a 16/10 prop at 9200 rpm with the carbie restrictor fitted.
I am planning on using a 18/8 without the restrictor.

what engine mount did you use?
and if you know how from the prop washer back to the end of the mount did it come out.
I am going down to a mates workshop today to make a custom engine mount for my DZ

Regards Lawrie

Lawrie,

I used the engine mount that came with the kit. All in all, the arf had a lot of things that I liked about it. The firewall had a fiber glass cloth already glued into it for reinforcement. I did also re-glued certain high-stress areas, just in case....But I liked the fact that they it came like that from the factory. It saved me a trip to the hobby shop.

But it also had some things I didn't. For example, there's no way I could get 45 degrees of throw with the plastic control arms that came with the kit... I checked it out about 30 degrees. So I bought the Dubro arms and now I am at 45-50 degrees on high rates...That will come in handy to hold a hover. The arf also comes with a generic gas tank...Go put a Dubro 24 oz in it. you will be glad you did.

The instructions also said to glue the stabilizers in place. Well, I didn't. I drilled a hole through the aluminum stab and fitted 2 4-40 bolts and used medium ca to hold them in place. I have the same set-up on my Composite arf, and it works fine. Next I decided to go with the pull pull inside of the fuselage instead of the tail and you know what I think it's still tail heavy....I have to wait until the weather gets better so that I can try to trim it out again.

As far as the DZ.....Wow!!! That thing is a monster. I have a DA-100 on my Composite, but call me Crazy, but I like the 140 more only because it doesn't suck 2 oz per minute like my gasser does.

Hi craz

I am surprised the standard engine mount is solid enough for the ys140dz I had mine in a WM 120 extra on the YS soft mounts and it seemed to have a fair bit of vibration through the airframe.
I was going to make a custom steel mount for it so i could use the ys soft mount wich normaly is to long for a standard mount.
it sound it should run well with a 18/8 prop.
so the DZ got the grunt to hold a hover and pullout

I already ordered dubro steel controll horns and a 24oz tank learnt that before 14oz tank dry after 5-7 minutes no reserve.

Do you have pictures of the horizontal stab mod?

Thanks for the info Lawrie

Hey Lawrie,

I will take pictures tonight of the stab and post them here tomorrow. It's only a suggestion, but I wouldn't put a steel mount in the front. If you want to go all out buy a great planes mount. They are heavy duty.

If space is an issue you might want to set up the stab to be removable. It's pretty easy to do just put the bar in the the stab then line up a small drill bit and drill one side first. put midium CA in the hole. Let it cure for about 2 minutes and then put the bolt through it and forget about it. The second hole you can use liquid locktite if you want. That will be the one you screw in and out at the field. Or you can use loctite on both of the bolts. It doesn't matter. I forgot to tell you that the motor was spinning close to 11,000 rpms that I had to richen it upand it dead sticked yesterday. But it floated down..It did not sink. So I know that it's not heavy, I just don't know what the weight is. I will try to weigh it sometime this week.

thanks craz

I get what you mean now. I was not sure before when you said to glue the bolt in.

I will give the supplied mount a go and see what happens.

http://www.buddengineering.com/Merch...ategory_Code=P

Have a look at the link that was the mount i was going to coppy.

Lawrie

That's a nice mount...I'm pretty sure that would would work.. Just remember that the firewall doesn't have right thrust built into it. You have to side mount the engine and add 2 4-40 size washer on on the firewall (top 2) for downthrust and atleast 2 washers in front (left) and (right) for right thrust.

I was going to build 2 deg thrust into the mount in both directions