jbracing

I will take one, Love the one I have!!

garch 22

My Feedback: (7)

Hi All,

I have built and rebuilt a couple of Shoes. I think the ARF is excellent with the exception of the undercarriage. I just sent in my request to Great Planes, that they reissue the ARF with the following suggestions:
- The very weak 3/16 balsa stringers be replaced with 3/16 or 1/4" spruce stringers on the underside, and that the landing gear plate be reinforced with 1/4" tri stock, on top & bottom.
- The plywood fire wall needs to be an aircraft grade material rather than the lightweight birch? and reinforced with triangle stock, both sides. ( I had the firewall completely delaminate which was caused by a ground loop, and cut a new firewall out of 7-ply 1/4" aircraft grade material).

With the goal of saving weight, these are common weak areas in all ARFS, and especially the Shoestring. The above reinforcing did add approximately 3 oz. to the structure, but substantially strengthened it. I think it could be done in the factory very easily.

Personally, I much prefer the open frame structure versus a fibreglass fuse, both for aesthetics, and repairability.

I am running a Tower .75 which fits completely inside the cowl, with a Bisson Pitts muffler, and it has been radared at 100 mph a number of times. I have raced this alongside a
GP Little Tony running an EVO 100 and we are dead even. This has been an excellent, trouble free combo, and would suggest it to those who do not want to carve up that beautiful cowl. I also reinforced the wheel pants with glass, used Dubro rubber wheels, and also dressed up
the cockpit a bit. The finished weight came out to exactly 8 lbs. Because of the heavier wing loading, it is a handful to land, and begin my final a loooooong way out, chop the throttle, and even use about 30 deg. of flaperon. Still have a hardtime slowing it down for anything close to a stall type landing.

I have always been curious what the weight comes out to when the ARF is built completely
stock. Can any of you tell me what it comes in at?

Great Planes knows this is a winner, and I am fairly confident they will bring it back, when enough people request it, as they did with Ultrasport kits and ARFs.

Blue Skies and Green Lights
Joe

crashland 73

My Feedback: (24)

weekend bump for those that havent had a chance to put a vote in.

chris8105

My Feedback: (22)

I voted as well.

crashland 73

My Feedback: (24)

the more the better!!!!!! hopefully not only in a 60 size but a 120 as well. that would fly great.

*JCB*

My Feedback: (9)

Sounds like the same thing that happened with the Ultra Sports. GP discontinued them and with a fairly large following here on RCU they were brought back and seemed to be a great success. With enough votes (and maybe a little help from RCKen and Minnflyer ) results may be had!

I'm gonna vote for it.

crashland 73

My Feedback: (24)

well, maybee not Minnflyer lol!

jgraham10

My Feedback: (3)

The other airplane looks very similar too. Nice 45 model, what serial number (production number) is it?
John

jeffpits

Sorry, I don't know details. This was kind of a field trip for a club meeting and the photo op was due to winning the "model of the month". A couple more pics may answer some questions.

Jeff

jgraham10

My Feedback: (3)

Thanks.
Thought it was a 45 model but is a 31a. I used to work for Learjet in Wichita and help build a number of different aircraft among them 31a's, 45's and 60's.
When I first was hired in I worked as a Electrical Installer working in the very back or tail of the airplane. Later I was involved in Functional Testing the aircraft before it went to the flight dept.
Later on I worked in the Flight Test dept working on a number of Bombardier Products.
That particular model is a great airplane and is one of my all time favorite Biz jets.
When the 40 model was introduced they stoped producing the 31 model which was a shame, the 31 is a really good aircraft and could have easily been updated. There were a number of people that were sad that they did away with that model.
John

crashland 73

My Feedback: (24)

a nice jet but lets try to keep this for the shoestring only guys.

garch 22

My Feedback: (7)

Back to the Shoestring,

As I requested above, can anyone post the finished weight (dry)of their plane
which was built fairly stock? I have never seen any numbers on this. It would
be helpful to know which engine / muffler combo you are using. As mentioned,
mine came in at 8 lbs. on the nose, and if I build another one, would like to get
the weight down as much as possible.

Thanks,

crashland 73

My Feedback: (24)

anyone else?

krproton

Hey guys, thought I would chime in here just for fun.

I did the in-house development work on the GP Shoestring ARF and wrote the instruction manual for it. Over the years, I've removed the covering and re covered several of our ARFs. I started the same procedure on a Shoestring a few years ago - it was going to be red and aluminum instead of red and yellow. I got the airframe all sanded (tapered the elevators and rudder), the engine mounted and the cowl painted, then I broke my leg playing ice hockey and there she sits (hanging from the ceiling above my workbench at work). I intended to finish it for Toledo - maybe next year (or the year after that).

Like all of you, I really love the Shoestring. I like those old Goodyear racershandsome airplanes.

Don't think there is much I can personally do about bringing this one back, but I'll email a link to this thread to the product manager.

Thanks for all of your "votes" and your posts along with many good suggestions for improvement.

I'll visit this thread ocassionally and report if I have any news.

Mostly I just wanted you to know somebody is listening.

Tim

crashland 73

My Feedback: (24)

COOL BEANS! I appreciate it. Now if we could get our Gov't to do the same? LOL!! thanks for the help.

shane.barton

I don't know if anyone is interested, I found a shoestring kit for sale in this month's issue of the AMA Magazine.

http://www.topnotchkits.com/index_files/TN_Kit5.htm

Unfortunately i'm not in the marker (rather saying, my wife tells me i'm not in the market) for another plane, so I won't get a chance to try it out.

crashland 73

My Feedback: (24)

Someone might want a kit. I prefer the arf version myself. I like building kits too though.

PLANE JIM

My Feedback: (109)

I do have a brand new GP Shoestring in the box-unfortunately I will never use it -I have one now that I am flying with OS 91fx-it is a nice flyer and a real looker, the one that I have that is new in the box is missing the cockpit (the piece that sits below the canopy and above the wing) but I do have a used one from a previous plane-

Nitro Dew

My Feedback: (2)

Plane Jim,

Sent you a pm

Nitro Dew

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I voted, about the time I wanted to get a Shoestring, they were discontinued

rye

My Feedback: (10)

hi
i have one ,they are great ,checker board the bottom of the wings and tail and rudder in black with a os 61 fx, i flew it about 10 times last year no mishaps, too bad due to poor eye site i cant fly no more i guess she will just hanger from the ceiling but if they come out again i would like to recover one in a diffenet theme thats what i am doing for club menbers now thanks

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

Dude! It worked! [X(]

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LNXJF3&P=G

[sm=thumbup.gif]

Iflyglow

My Feedback: (79)

I am glad to see it back, since it is my favorite plane and it gets flown quite often. What's up with the 53" wing span and the 17" length though.[X(] I guess I will keep my old style model. Here is my Shoestrings cousin a Midget Mustang which was just finished.

blackmonte

My Feedback: (11)

Hopefully it's a typo

maukaonyx

47" long...info at Tower is more complete today. Too bad this plane is not larger. I'd like it 60 size for a 90 or 120 four stroke. I was getting excited about this plane till I learned it is smaller than I wanted. Should be lots of fun though! Jon