Have just taken delivery of Slowpoke .40 ARF by Great Planes. will power w/ Saito .50 four-stroke. Would welcome comments and suggestions of any kind from owners or fliers of this model.
This is my second plane; first low wing & taildragger, following a Hanger 9 Extra Easy trainer.

Bought one of these 40 slowpokes at an auction. It had some minor front end damage (had to rebuild the fire wall). I have over 100 engines from an os20 fs to a ys1.20 fs, and from .049 to 1.20 2 cycle. I tried a ys53 first. It was okay but wasn't interesting. It would land like feather, really slow. I bought a crashed and broken os40fx. After repairing all the broken and cracked parts with JB Weld, I tested the engine on my engine stand. It ran very well using a 10x7 apc prop and produced about 14,000rpm. I thought I'd give it a try on the slowpoke. It was SUPER difficult to land. It seemed maybe I had to much power!! After checking the angle of incidence of the wing to the stabilizer, I found that the wing was 2 degrees positive. I shimmed the wing as best I could (without recarving the wing saddle) to about 1 degree positive. That helped, but the plane was way too fast at full throttle....It would fly at idle, and climb slowly with two clicks of throttle on the transmitter stick. I decided that I wanted the horsepower of the engine, but not the speed it produced on the airframe. So, I made the MAGIC fix. What a huge difference!!!!
I put an 11 x 4 apc prop in place of the 10 x 7. It now lands like a feather, will fly all day inverted with virtually no trim adjustment,
is able to hover when I use 15% nitro, still has the speed if I want to crank it up, and will fly about thiry minutes on a tank of gas (Great Planes 10 oz.). It loads in my pick up without disassembly and has become my favorite sport plane to fly.

mikey821 txs for reply. just getting started in rc. dumped my hanger 9 extra easy trainer on 43rd solo. bought slowpoke to replace, but also ordered new fuselage and wing for extra easy and plan to rebuild. need some more landing experience before I want to take slowpoke to air. happy to have your experience to call upon. if easier to communicate, contact me at my e-mail: [email protected]. will look forward to hearing from you.

I don’t know how well that Sato engine will fit on the Slowpoke ARF. I put a Magnum 52 4-stroke on mine, but the carburetor hit the fire wall, so I sloped it back to make it Magnum fit. It turned out very well, as you can see. I haven’t flown it yet, but I just thought you should know what the engine fit may be a problem w/ the ARF. I would love to know how that turned out w/ the Sato. I emailed Great Planes about it and they said that all there planes were designed around OS engines. Good luck!

thanks for your input regarding engine installation. have not started as yet on new slowpoke, but trial fit suggests Saito .50 will have to be installed about 1/4 inch or slightly more forward of
original specs. hope this will offset somewhat the tendency of the poke to be tail heavy. will keep you informed of progress at this site. and hope you will exchange your experiences.

I also have a slowpoke 40 arf .

It's powered by a .46 LA with a 11X4 prop. Excellent flyer!!
Once you get used to the way it flies you can slow it right down and walk beside it.. It will glide forever with the engine shut off.
With the full rates set according to the manual it is pretty snappy as well..

GREAT flying airplane.. Have fun

rvd; thanks for the info. will continue to post progress reports on slowpoke here, and will welcome any additional input from other owners or fliers. thanks to all.