Hi all.I am looking at getting another ARF for my Saito .91.The Yellow Aircraft Giles G-300 and Cap 232 look good . Has any one tried them and if so what do you think about the kit itself and also how well does it fly?

Thanks P. J

I have the Giles. A Saito 100 powers it great. It weighs about 7 to 7.5 lbs dry. Another guy on here fly a similar plane with a Saito .91 and he says it flies nice but not unlimited vertical.

I haven't been flying it long but from what I flown so far, it flies great. Goes together fairly easy but does take longer and it a bit more involved than most ARF's. The fiberglass tail is... well... it sucks to try and glue on and get straight and everything sealed but it is airfoiled which looks nice.

I'm putting together the Yellow G-300 right now. I have thw servos in the wing and I'm getting ready to glue them together. The engine installation is odd I think. There are no marks made on the firewall to center the engine. The engine is glued (temp) to the mount and then the mount is set on the firewall with the fuse in the vertical position. The cowl is placed on the fuse over the engine and the engine/mount is squared up in the hole in the cowl. Strange!! I don't know what you do if you need to cut a hole in the cowl to clear the engine first. So far so good. Quality is great so far. Just ordered an OS.91FX to power mine.

Ya the engine installation was a little vague for me also. Bascially I ended up measuring to find the exact center of the box and trying it there first and it worked. I also replaced the HUGE engine mount with a Dave Brown to save weight and fit better.

An OS. 91 should fit fine though as my Saito 100 even fits inside the cowl (rubs the valve cover bolts just a tad.).

Has anyone contacted Yellow to check on engine position?

I did, but they were not any help. Basically just told me to follow directions. Also couldn't tell me about the thrust line.

Actually I found out that they hadn't assembled this plane yet. But I'm betting they all build the same so..

I'm building the new Yellow Giles G 300/120 right now. This bird is designed for only one elevator servo. 2 servos can be put in the tail depending on the weight needed for balance if any, and what happens when I check it at the CG. If the idea of using 2 servos doesn't work out because of too much weight needed to balance it at the CG, then I plan to use the MKD dual elevator Bellcrank and one carbon fiber rod with 4/40 treaded titanium end inserts. available from [url]www.centralhobbies.com. I'll use one 180 in oz servo in the tray as suggested in the plans. I measured the diameter of the hole for the fuel tank and created center lines from those points out on the firewall. The best thing to do is follow the instructions. Build the entire wing first, and put it on for a moment, then place the engine already installed on the mount, on the firewall and put the cowl on and let the cowl ears seat on the leading edge of the wing as shown. Then, put the spinner backplate on and center it with the hole in in the cowl and then mark the mount holes using a "Great planes dead center engine mount hole locator" or try to trace the mount. The firewall already has the correct amount of right thrust built in. Therefore, you should see how the spinner backplate will be closer to the cowl on the right side. You may find that the engine may not mount exactly center. I'm not sure yet, I haven't gotten up to this point yet. I'm doing allot of mind planning on this as I go along.
OK, I'm editing this as I continue. I dry fitted the rudder trailing edge and tail feathers and see that the fiberglass vertical fin for the rudder, overlaps the the trailing edge for the rudder. This will have to shaved along the edges of the bevel end on both sides from top to bottom. I'll apply the red monocote first, and also trim it to the bevel ends on both sides, to give the gluing area needed. The only thing I'm not too crazy about is that there isn't much meat on the stabilizer saddle at the tail. the sides of the fuse are only 1/4" thick. I might make a shelf out of 1/4 light sheet balsa or use 1/4 or 1/2 triangle stock, and add it in the tail right under the stab in the saddle for more gluing area and a stronger bond. There is an area right under the stab covered with yellow covering that can be removed and replaced,so to get in and add more glue to the underside of the stab. I might make the forward side of the rudder trailing edge 1/4" thicker after gluing it in, from the top of the tail at that point to the top of the trailing edge on the forward side. I may do this for more gluing area for the fiberglass vertical fin and make a stronger fin at the trailing edge.
I'm not forgetting about the weight factor in the tail. these extra steps will depend on what happens at the CG. I'll dry fit everything I can before making a move.
Allot of times these ARF's are more work then you think. I always improvise wherever I think needed.
Ok, I installed the engine and you don't go by center lines in the box. You must follow the directions to the letter, and get your spinner backplate centered with the hole. Engine mount location will depend on engine and mount used. The measurement they give you in the plan to set the prop hub 4 15/16 from the firewall is a BIG MISTAKE!! That depends on engine used. I mounted the wing and put the cowl on and let the cowl ears lean up against the leading edge of the wing as shown in the plan. I took a mesurement from the firewall to the prop hub hole and I see 6". I added 1/8" for more clearence. I mounted the OS 160 FX and it looks good. I got a perfect fit on centering the backplate with the hole, with the cowl square. that's the important thing. I have a good friend who just built a 33% cap, His instructions were the same as in this kit. His bird flys great!
To be continued.
Anyone else building this new bird? Please share your thoughts and findings.

Vcooper1,
I am building the new 120 size Giles now also, but I'm just getting started. Looks like I'm gonna have to cut the ribs in the wing to get the wing joiner to go in place, did you have to do this also?

I agree with you on the elevator linkage and was thinking the same thing. Either two servos in the back if balance will allow or use the dual elevator bellcrank from Central Hobbies.

I have not looked at the vertical fin installation or engine installation yet.

Jim

Cut the ribs????

If your joiner is too long, like mine was on the 60 size, just cut IT down to fit. Don't touch the ribs.

BTW, my joiner was too long but also too skinny to get a tight fit. So I cut the ends down and glued light ply to the back until I got a tight fit all around.

Inorris,
I don't think you understand what I'm talking about because we are talking about two different planes. My wing joiner is about 15" long, I would have to cut it down to less than 8" for it to fit in the wing without cutting ribs. No way would you want to do that!
Yellow did not cut a hole for the wing joiner in the first few ribs, which I hope they will be correcting in future kits, but I was curious if Vcooper1 found the same situation on his plane.

Thanks, Jim

I see. Sorry, it just sounded that the problem I had also but mine was only about 6 inches or so.

15" ?? Dang that is a big joiner.

Jim:
Re: The wing joiner on the Yellow Giles 300/120.

Yes I saw the same problem, and yes I cut that part of the rib off. I Looked real close at the instructions where they show you the glueing area, and it goes from the center to the tip.
I would never cut the wing joiner. this brace is there for strength.
This diaheidral brace not only just joins the wing but it's that big, so to stop the wing from snapping in half. I just think they failed to mention it in the plans. Besides, did you see any instructions to cut the joiner? If you notice, they also failed to mention to make sure the diaheidral angle in the brace faces down when installing it. Remember, dry fit everything first. I found that the brace needed some sanding in order to get the wing to join correctly at the center ribs with no gap!!

I will post post more info and pics on what I decide to do as I go along. I see a little extra work that needs to be done to the tail section. there are a couple of improvements I plan to do in areas I feel need some improvement. I'll explain what I see as I go along. What you do, is your decision.

Here are some more notes for those that follow on the assembly of the .60 size.

I'm almost done with it.

Gluing the belly pan on was a major pain. Took about 2 hours of fitting and sanding and fitting and sanding. I never did get it perfect but it's close.
I ended up gluing it on using lots of masking tape and weight to hold all the corners down. While it was drying one weight slipped so it now has a gap on that edge. Bummer.

The tail is kind of a poor design. The fiberglass fin cover took major sanding to get it to fit and it still left a gap over the horizontal stab by a 1/4 inch. 1/4 was sanded off the top only back by the rudder. There was just no way to get it to come down to cover the gap. Don't know how to fix that one. This fiberglass piece should have been eliminated and just build the fuse all the way back with slots for the fin and stab.

The elevators are a problem in that when you fit them to the stab with the hinges, the hinge width was not planned for and counter balances end up being 1/8 inch short on the stab. I guess I could have corrected this by sanding out some of the leading edge bevel in the elevator.

The landing gear need redrilled larger for the bolts that are provided.

I was shorted 4 connectors on the tail control horn gizmo and 6 screws for the cowl and canopy. Some other hardware pack was included with a couple of rods and two screws. have no idea where these go and they are not the plans/instructions.

Mounting the cowl is a problem in that you are supposed to reinforce the cowl mounting holes on the back with plywood, but the space inside is so restricted there is no way to reach it.
I strengthen the holes with CA and will see what happens. The instruction say to use a hanger off the front of the motor mount to support the front of the cowl. There is no way you would ever be able to get that to line up or get it bent right.

Almost done now and I have about 20 hours in this ARF. My longest building arf by far. I once did a GP Extra in a weekend < 10 hours.

I'm off to the hobby shop to buy another pull-pull as I messed this one up, pick up some screws for the cowl and some clevises.

It sure looks cool.

snyder_man

I built up the area behind the horizonal stab and then covered it with scrap covering and it doesn't look bad. There is a small gap at the front of it but you'll never notice if I don't point it out.

Also, there is a top and bottom to the stab, or at least, on mine there was. One way it was at +1 degree incidence and the other at 0 degrees.

Can't see the gap.

Oh I didn't use the wire. It is impossible to bend just right. I put more screws in to hold the cowl on though. You WILL need to reinforce them from behind though as you're probably just going into soft balsa. I tack glued them to a stick to help get them in there.

I have the gap at the back and also between the top of the stab and bottom of the fiberglass throughout the whole length. When i get home tonight I'll post a pic. Crap, I didn't know there was a top and bottom to the stab. I hope I got it right. It did fit better one way rather than the other.

snyder_man

I just finished the YA Giles 300/60 version. I put an OS 91 with a pitts muffler in. This bird is very light. I read a report from some dude in another forum that he was taking the OS 91 out because he felt it was too much motor. He said that using a 14/6 Zinger, the bird was an animal with unlimited vertical. I will soon find out. I hope he's right. Unlimited vertical tells me it should hover great.

I'll see.

We have the 60 size Cap. I originally used that bent wire set up on the front of the cowl. Took a whole evening to get it bent right and a nut and bolt in it. Lost it after first flight even with locktight, lol. With the cowling screw holes beefed up with CA everything is holding fine.
I also eliminated the wooden dowl elevator push rod. I used Two seperate push rods in guide tubes, Y'ed together near the servo. Just have to watch the geometry close so both halves have identical throw. I couldn't get the dowl set up to NOT bind with up elevator.

Sunday 6/29/03.

I'm happy with this bird after the day was over.
I read a post in here from some dude who was taking out the os 91 fx because he could'nt get it to idle down low enough,and had a hard time landing it because it was too fast.
Well, I've got some good news for you. I stuck with the idea of using the 91 and I'm glad I did. I broke the engine in on the airplane with the cowl off to make adjustments easy of course.
I put about a tank through it at a nice rich setting and mid range throttle. After that, I just had to lean out the low end adjustment a bit to get a good stable idle. I used a 14/6 zinger.
I was able to get a nice low idle. The plane didn't move on the ground. I'm not kidding. I know how to tune my engines to perfection. I have unlimited vertical with this prop as long as I'm not doing a vertical roll. or vertical snap roll. I'm going to try a 13/7 next to see what happens. I want to see if I can hover this bird. If anyone has the right answer for me, as to what prop to use to get it to hover, please email me. I had the engine still running a bit rich. I always run em a little rich so I must consider that. I'll see and report my findings. Other than that, it flys great, tracks great, I was able to slow it down real good for excellent landings. No problems!

The trick is, while tuning your engine, listen to your idle for at least 3 minutes. If it slows down and dies, or even if it doesn't die and just slows down a bit it will eventually bog down and die because the low end setting is too fich. If it speeds up and dies it's too lean. Spend as much time as needed to get that idle to remain at a constant rpm so it doesn't speed up or slow down.
Then recheck your main setting for max lean and always back off 1/2 a turn and let it idle and listen again for 3 minutes to make sure there is no change in idle rpm. Your transition should be good as well. If you change to a different prop, your idle will change and you will have to re adjust the low end and of course the main end for that prop. Always listen to your idle for 3 minutes and make sure there is no change in rpm. Always adjust it for a stable idle. That's how you know you've got it right.

Happy idleing.

Vcoop,

Nice info. Nice posts.

So how does the G300/60 fly? I am looking at one with a YS91 fs with a pump. Need some feedback, not real familiar with this plane. Thanks

Michael

I put the os91 in this bird and it flys great. I'm using a 14/8 prop.
It almost has unlimited vertical. It will climb streight up at least 100 feet or more before it stalls. I'm still experimenting with props. One thing I found out. Don't ever use the thin small ID tubeing in the fuel tank kit for fuel pic up. This was causing my engine to overheat because the ID of the tubing is small enough to limit fuel flow. I just changed it to larger ID tubing and hope for better performance. other than that, it's a nice kit. The tail feathers are full semetrical instead of just flat. I think the airplane performs better with that idea. I think you'll like it.

Good luck.