NM2K

My Feedback: (14)

That is good to know. Thanks, Roby.

How does one pronounce your name? Is it pronounced Row Bee, as in rowing a boat in the first syllable? TIA


Ed Cregger

Roby

Hi Ed,

Correctomundo
Row Bee is the way it sounds out.


Regards,
Roby

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

I think a little smaller engine would fly this plane good too. The plane is not a 3d monster so there is no need to go crazy with power. i bet the Super Tiger 2300 would be a good match for this plane too. I think I read in some earlier posts about people using that engine.

pilot727

No i would guess rob like robbing a bank bee like a bee sting, am i right Roby, either way you seem like a great guy with great advise.

biplane bill

My Feedback: (5)

I flew it with a ST3250 and that was more than enough power. Converted to gas now with a Venem 45 from Copperhead Aviation. Haven't flown yet but its ready to go. Big engines like the ST drink alot of fuel, hense the conversion.

pilot727

You want to use some 30% fuel try out a YS-160 DZ it has all the power and runs really great but it loves it's fuel and it is worth it, every time i fill it up it is just a great performing engine, i had to mount it with a hyde soft mount as i am sure that it would of snapped any other kind of a mount, not a bit of vibration

Roby

GNIRWIN

I would agree that a smaller engine might fly it
ok but I wouldn't go much smaller than the minimum
recommendations. It's nice to have a little bit extra
"just in case".

Only speaking for myself , I feel that the 1.20 4 stroke
is the perfect plane /engine combo for my style of flying.
I expect to have alot of fun with it this winter . As I have
said before, this a very nice flying airplane.

If this plane was offered in kit form at a reasonable price,
no question I'd go for it.

Looks like I'll be flying off the ski's this weekend.

Over and out,
Roby

proline8000

My Feedback: (12)

jrf,
This is in response to Quality. I have built 9 ARF's and 1 ARC from Great Planes and all the ARF's seem to have the same issues.

1. The firewall on all of them are very week, i had the Cap 232 engine mount come out because of No glue . I have had to reglue all of them. On the ARC it seems they are built much better.
2. Wing saddle. They all needed to have wood laminated to them. The wings didn't fit well and saddles need to be modified.
3. Tail wheels. The only thing i will say is they are junk. except the Christin Eagle.
4. Wing dihedral brace. One word junk I make new ones from aircraft ply, not lite ply or pine.
5. Fiberglass parts (cowels,and wheel pants)are always too thin with the exception of the fiberglass fuselages.

I feel the ARF's are designed well but That is only part of quality, The biggest part is that the well designed plane is assembled poorly. If they spend A little more time during assembly and get better quality wood and use more glue the would become a better Quality product.

P.S. The last statement is not pointed at Great planes it is across the board with the exception to the very high end ARF's

pilot727

I have the cap 232 with a DA-50 i drilled the fire wall and put wooden pegs in and glues them and never moved yet. Any arf if you read some information on them they tell you to go all around the joints and do many of the things roby said to do and it adds so much strength, an arf saves all that time from building a kit and they are making them nice but they still need attention, a kit is no doubt better but it would take me years, i just could not due a kit, back problems and way to much bending over but once done what a bird to look at. And you know what you haveinto it and what it will hold for an engine, no questions asked.

jrf

My Feedback: (551)

Proline: Thank you for being more specific.

"4. Wing dihedral brace. One word junk I make new ones from aircraft ply, not lite ply or pine." Have you seen one fail? I am the club test pilot and have flown literally hundreds of different ARFs and except for crashes, I have never seen a dihedral brace fail. (They are sometimes not glued in well and they will pull out of the wing, but that is the assembler's fault.) They may not be made from the best wood, but if they work, they are not junk.

"3. Tail wheels. The only thing i will say is they are junk. except the Christin Eagle." Your experience appears to be limited to Great Planes and I have to agree that some of their tail wheels are not well designed (Junk). Other brands are usually much better.

"5. Fiberglass parts (cowels,and wheel pants)are always too thin with the exception of the fiberglass fuselages." This is a strength/weight compromise and despite your friend Roby's opinion, most people think the Great Planes ARFs tend to be too heavy. Like every compromise, it will not satisfy everyone.

"I feel the ARF's are designed well but That is only part of quality, The biggest part is that the well designed plane is assembled poorly. If they spend A little more time during assembly and get better quality wood and use more glue the would become a better Quality product." And more expensive. But this is a reasonable statement and I'm sure most people would agree. It's a long way from this one:

"Tim on post 225 made mention of the product review
in MA that covered the GSS. If there was EVER a bogus
review of a product , then that could be used as the template.

I picked up a GSS for a winter knock around so I could
park my scale stuff for the season. Before I received my
GSS I decided that I would do a small review on this ARF
so I could give a report at my next monthly club meeting.

The only thing positive I can say is that it does fly very well.
Beyond that , if this is what you guys call quality then your
standards aren't very high.

Regards,
Roby"

I don't work for MA or for Great Planes, or even particularly like their products, but I don't think coming on a public forum like this and saying that something is "junk" or "bogus" is useful to anyone. You and Roby have made much more meaningful contributions recently and for that you are to be commended.

I'm through now.

Jim

pilot727

One of my nicest planes was the ultra lite 202 Giles, except for the composite landing gear didnt last very long but a great builder that builds kits says there was nothing there for the landing gear for support, he put a whole knew support system in ad i fly it still, you are so right and i have had many different arf's but never lost a fire wall yet with all YS engines the 160-140 ad two 110's never had a dead stick with one of them yet either, there is nothing i love then to watch a great builder build a kit or even repair an arf, a good builder will always find something wrong with an arf a weak spot and fix it, i am just a sport pilot and i love them but you are so right about everything roby, just wished i were a builder, but i must say for those who have not used the hyde soft mount designed by merle hyde is missing out on taking almost all of the vibration out of the airplane, i even have one on my LT-25, my midget mustang with a ys-110 was like holding my chain saw when i cut wood, after using the soft mount, it was a different airplane, i also clocked my cap 232 at 98 MPH with a radhar gun with the DA-50, it to flies really nice but the guy that built it really put some time into it and if you look at it you can tell he beefed it up in all the right places.

pilot727

My next plane will be the yak 90-110 QB with a ys-110 hope it turns out good, got any infor on that plane

Roby

JRF

Wow

Thank you,
Roby

pilot727

Roby
Have you heard or have any experience with the aero works yak 54 110-120 size QB, it's nice to know if anyone has a problem with a plane specially before he spends the money for it, specially when money is tight for some of us, or at least for me it is, that is usually why i come here, to find out if anyone has had any experience with any plane a person is wanting to purchase. Does not make it a bad plane but may help you to build up a certain point of the plane that may be weak, thanks.

SBrian

My Giant Super Sport just arrived via UPS. Dam that’s box is Big! The poor guy carrying it up the driveway looked pissed! I had a grin from ear to ear. Maybe he thought I was enjoying myself way too much while he was work.

I open the box just to check for damage. And what I saw was a well packed, stacked and racked ARF… Looks like we are going to have some Balsa over cast at the flying field when this plane is completed!

I’m going to use the Evolution 35GT for reasons of weight and power. The 35GT weighs in about 10oz less than the Fuji 32 … No need to add weight to the tail to get the SS to balance. Plus the add bonus of more power and nothing hanging out of the cowl.

Most likely I will not start building the plane till after the Christmas holidays. This is due to the plane needs climatize under, I mean next to the Christmas tree.

PS: May I make a suggestion to those on this forum… This Form is dedicated to those who want to make our flying experiences better through the knowledge learned as a group. Opinions are optional and not required to enjoy this forum. If there is a successful improvement you have made to an aircraft please share it with us and what you learned from it, so we all can benefit from your experience as well. Ok I’m done…

Have a good one guys

pilot727

I bought a Giles G-300 from Yellow aircraft, the box had a dent in it, and being inexperienced i checked everything and all looked fine, i took it to my friend to build it and i got a call for me to come over his home, he told me to look down into the wing, every rib was broken, nothing to do with yellow aircraft, they make a great plane, it was due to UPS, i had thrown the box out, but i got it before it was hauled away and UPS paid for another wing with no problems at all. Great plane

NM2K

My Feedback: (14)

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(In the voice of Detective Columbo) So - er - let me see if I understood your last comment correctly - if we haven't actually assembled and flown the model in question, are you saying we shouldn't post anything? What fun is that? <G>

Merry Christmas to you, friend. I'm glad you got what you wanted. Mine is on its way too.


Ed Cregger

Terry Spalding

it's heavy......13 to 14 pounds world model is 9.....something to think about

CB36

Hi all;
OK, I'm convinced, I'm going for a smaller motor and will save my DL for the future! I have a couple of questions:

How does the Fuij 32EI run? Good quality, reliability, easy start? Sounds like from the review in this month's Model Aviation, it's a good combo. I just don't want to add to the dilema with a fussy engine!!!!!

On the elevator servo install...do I need a reversing Y-harness for this? I can't seem to picture how this works. I've never done dual servos for the same surface on opposite sides of the fuse.

Thanks!!!!!
CB36

pilot727

I had a fuji 32, it run great and started even better then most, the more fuel i put through it the more power it had, as far as the reversing harness goes, i had one and could never keep the elevators the same i got rid of it and turnned one of the servo's around, never had another problem

krproton

Hi CB36.

I work in the R&D department at Hobbico (we are the exclusive distributor of Fuji Engines). I promise to give you my honest opinion of Fuji engines if you keep an open mind while reading this and try not to discard what I have to say just because I work for the company. Here goes...

First, I have to qualify (or disqualify) myself as not being an "expert" with gas engines. I've used a few U.S. Engines (another brand we used to sell, but no longer) a few years ago in planes like the giant Top Flite P-51D Mustang ARF, the Great Planes 1/4-scale Pitts Special and the giant Top Flite P-47 Gold Edition kit. I've also used Fuji 50's (or was that a 43?) in the Pitts and Christen Eagle, a Fuji 32 in the giant Super Sportster ARF and giant Big Stik ARF and a Fuji 43 in a new model that will be released in the Great Planes "Performance Series" of 1/4-scale aerobatic planes (like the Yak and Sukhoi). The only other gas engine I've run is a Desert Aircraft 150 in our 38% Extra 330S ARF (SA-WEEET!).

Over the years, some of us have poked fun at or dismissed the Fuji line because they aren't exactly your Porsche of model airplane engines--maybe sometimes it's just human nature to complain. And if you look at the cost of replacement parts for Fuji engines they seem expensive. But I have to say that I can't really complain one single bit about the way any Fuji that I have ever used has performed. I always start them by hand because they have been easy to start, start quickly and haven't "bitten" me (but most gas engines are pretty easy to start anyway). When it comes to power, although I haven't had the opportunity to directly compare Fuji to another brand (say, by doing back-to-back flights of similar airplanes with different engines), the flight performance of the Fuji's I have operated seem to be at least adequate. And they have been very reliable. The power of the Fuji 43 in the Christen Eagle was "nice." Certainly not like it would have been with a DA 50 or something like that, but the Eagle flew very well with the Fuji. And yesterday we were doing some radio testing with a giant Big Stik with the Fuji 32 and the power was, again, very nicely matched to the airframe (and landing in the snow was fun!). It didn't have unlimited vertical, but close. It was a very good match--as was the 32 in the giant Super Sportster.

If you're some kind of 3D pilot and want to do lots of hovering, a Fuji engine may not be for you. But for the average pilot who just wants to go flying and relax, I would have no problem recommending a Fuji.

So, to answer your question CB, there are probably better engines out there than the Fuji, but they might cost more (but they might not). But so far, I've not had any problems running any of the Fuji's I've come across.

I'm sure others will answer your question with their experiences--good or bad.

Tim

pilot727

I have been around many fuji's at both fields i belong to and there are many fuji's there and they run great start great and an all around good engine, after some watching mine start they also went to fuji with no regrets, i have a da-50 but have had a fuji and never had a problem, i gave it to my friend to put onto his taylor craft and it is still running great now for many years.

NM2K

My Feedback: (14)

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I'm thinking of putting a NIB Brillelli 36cc engine in my Giant SS. It needs a home. The Cub that I bought the 36cc engine for turned out to be slightly smaller (World Models) than I thought it would be, so I'll put a new SV 26cc engine ($150 new!) in that model.


Ed Cregger

foresterxt

My Feedback: (35)

What's the largest prop you can run in the Giant SS and still have ground clearance? I'm getting ready to put the ARF together with a CRCpro 45 V3 and was planning on running a 20x10.

Thanks, Dave

ckangaroo70

My Feedback: (51)

Thought I would chime in and post a bit of info regarding my Giant SS. Mine is setup with a Zenoah G-38, and Hitec 645MG on all surfaces. The Tail has guide wires installed, and I have about a pound of lead in the tail to balance. My G38 has Spring Start and Mag ignition which contributes to all the weight in the tail, but that huge wing seems to suffer very little from the extra weight. Its a great flying plane and my only complaint to date is that I found out on a fairly soft landing that one gear mounting block was a bit shy on epoxy. I had to open the wing up on the bottom and use some good 30 minute epoxy on those landing gear blocks. The wheel pants have also started to show some signs of serious wear after flying it this summer, and this is normal for flying off grass, but I found out that Tower don't carry the replacement wheel pants. Not that big of deal though, and they do have some others that would work. It just would have been nice to be able to order some direct replacements like they offer for most of there other ARFs. Maybe if I am feeling flush sometime, I will just order a pair of those nice Troy Built Carbon Fiber ones. Overall its been a good Plane, and alot of fun to fly.