I was right about me getting a GP Cherokee for christmas. [8D] I do have some questions:

1. can I use just a heat gun to get the wringles out of the covering?

2. The manuel suggests a O.S. 46 AX ABL;how will it fly with that engine or is there a better engine out there?

3. What about that bag of screws[X(]; I guess what I have to do; is seperate all the screws and see how many time the manuel calls for a certain screw.

and RCKen; in your review; I try to see how you did the refuel line at the bottom; can you explain how you did that. I would like to see a pic from the inside if thats not a problem.

Flyboy,
This plane will be and OUTSTANDING performer with a 46 AX in it. Although I did the review with the 55 AX they sent me, it's more engine than this plane needs. The 46 will be more than enough for it.

The best way to remove all the wrinkles is exactly as I described in my review. First use a heat iron to seal down all the edges of the covering. Then use a heat gun to shrink all the wrinkles out of the covering. Then go back over the covering with a heat iron (preferably with a hot sock on it) to seal down the covering to the wood structure underneath. If you do this the covering will stay pretty tight in even the hottest sun.

Yes, the best way to deal with all the hardware in this plane is to seperate it, label it, and identify where it goes BEFORE you start putting it together. This actually applies to all planes, not just this one. This is just a good practice to do when building a kit, or assembling an ARF. I wish that Great Planes, and other manufacturers, would provide a hardware identification page (which I noted in my review) so that people could better identify all the hardware.

Ok, what I did for the fuel line is simply make a receptical for the fuel dot to mount in. It's not really a fuel dot, but rather more of a fuel stopper. But it works just like a fuel dot if you build a small receptical for it that mounts in the cowl. These are pretty easy to build. First start with a small block of balsa. I don't remember the size of brass tubing you will need right off the top of my head, but 1/4" tubing seems to stick in my mind. First shape the bottom of the balsa block so that is fits the inside of the cowl. The block only needs to be approxmately 1"x1"x1/4". After it's shaped to fit the inside of the cowl drill a hole through it for the brass tubing. Now size the brass tubing so that it extends 1/16" below the bottom of your balsa block, and cut the top of it flush with the top of the block. Use thin CA to secure the tubing in the balsa. Now drill a hole in the cowl where you want the filler tube to mount. the 1/16" extending below the block should sit flush with the bottom of the cowl when the block is in place. Use epoxy to glue the block in place in the cow. Once the epoxy is dried slide the fuel filler tube through the brass tubing and then push the stopper into the fuel tube. You can then push this back into the tubing and it will secure in place. This can be seen in the pictures in my review, [link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/article_display.cfm?article_id=1039[/link] . Here is a picture of the block on the inside of the cowl.

Hope this helps

Ken

1: it is best to use an iron first and seal down the edges and seams. Going right to the heat gun may tighten the covering resulting in it pulling away from the edges.

2: OS 46AX is a dynamite engine. Reports are that it is enough of an engine to fly the plane very well. Another option is the 55AX which is more power but probably not needed on that plane. Many people like lots of extra power and would prefer the 55. If it were me I'd get the 55.

3: not sure what you mean about the bag of screws. can you measure them with a ruler? there even may be a paper ruler in the manual. they should call for specific size and style screws in assembly.

You'll like the Cherokee with the .46-AX. I used this engine in my first one and the power was great and CG was right on with no modifications. I made my second Cherokee electric using the recommended set up and I had to put my receiver battery in the back of the plane plus a little bit of lead to achieve CG. The extra weight definitely affected how the plane flew.

GP ARF's and kits are great (The best in my opinion) but that bag full of screws and hardware can be a pain I suppose. The stuff is good quality just difficult to sort through. World Models bags the screws and hardware needed for each step in the instructions separately and labels each little package accordingly. It is a nice touch and I wish GP could do something similar. It would make already excellent products just that much better.