Skeletor

As a rule I put wash-out in all the planes I build. Also all 3 Midwest kits I have built were a bit tail heavy and were a handful on the first flight. For the Midwest Aerostar .40, balance the plane on the forward edge of the wing spar and it will fly like a dream. The pics of the Decathalon Iv'e seen so far don't inspire me to want one and hearing, for the most part, that it is hard to fly caps it.
I sometimes wonder if the mfgs. intentionally have us set up our planes tail-heavy. Hmnnnnnnnnnnnnn its a conspiracy, I just know it. hehehe.

bleriot5

I put a Saito 91 in my GP Decathlon 40. This being the case, I can't say I've ever tip stalled. I can say however that I overcorrected coming off my field which needed a cut badly (the plane started tracking towrds ME in the grass). I rolled inverted and pulled into the ground. Heh, the brand new TruTurn didn't like it. My advice is the same as the manufacturer and the good people here. Stay speedy at takeoff and landing, and hold onto that up elevator for a few seconds when you start rolling. Once in the air (the saito 91 has to pull a ridiculous acceleration b/c we're talkin 0 to 60 in 20 feet this thing flies like a monorail.
Build it with washout, and throw away the stock control rods or you're in Bind city.

mkjohnston

My Feedback: (2)

Hi, So here I am in 2022 with a brand new GP Super Decathlon Kit and I've heard and read the horror stories about this airplane. So do I sell this kit or do I keep and convert it to Electric power?
thanks
Michael

foodstick

I got one of these wrecked from a buddy, a kit built.. I converted to electric.. it flew great for the day I had it ! hahahahhah No problem taking off or landing . But I did some insane snap rolls at altitude..the plane exited perfect every time.
Tried one down lower, incredible blurry snap roll. comes out a bit nose down.. and game over.. total destruction.. Was sad to tell my friend about it because his Dad had built and crashed it ... it had sat for years after his Dad passed away.

RICKSTUBBZ

Realizing it has been a couple months since you wrote this..
I'd be happy to take it off your hands....

A7Bldr

My Feedback: (40)

I love this plane and have my 3rd in the build stage (sold the others over time). Its one of my favorites to fly.
I learned how to take off with this plane by accident and it has helped me with all tail draggers. I was trying to fly it off some long grass and it kept nosing-over as I added power.
I was forced to hold Full Up elevator (which feels very weird) in order to keep it moving for take off. To my surprise it tracked perfectly straight and flew right off from a 3-point stance. I had to carefully fly it away by reducing the Up elevator after it was in the air and gaining speed, so it wouldn't stall - but I use some form of this technique on all my tail draggers now.
My advice is: make sure the tailwheel is aligned straight with the rudder, don't take off right into a stall, and perhaps fly off grass not pavement. Maybe practice with a foamy.
If I try to ROG and not keep the tail down, it goes wherever it wants, sometime left and sometimes right, and the rudder doesn't have enough authority to straighten it out in time.
FYI, my plane uses an OS 70 FS engine in it.
My .02 cents. Jim

mikeg7777

I would stay away from that plane. Over the last 25 years I have heard more horror stories about that plane than any other plane.

RICKSTUBBZ

Mike,
I'd venture to say, going to be hard to find many of them around in the first place.

However, there are some of us that would disagree with your statement. I think it is/was a fine high performance airplane. But it is not a CUB, that is for sure.

***Dang.... this intermittent problem with being able to add pictures is annoying!

Outrider6

My Feedback: (2)

I might be mistaken, but I think the one and only major problem with that plane was an error in the CG location shown on the plans. I don't know if that was ever corrected. I read that somewhere, over a decade after I lost mine on the maiden flight because of that very issue, which I was not aware of at the time, since it was "built according to the plans". I do recall thinking that it was flying as if it were extremely tail-heavy, as it snapped and spun in about 5 seconds after takeoff. I just moved on to a different plane and nearly forgot about it. I guess I thought I had horsed it off of the ground too soon, when I didn't.

But I would love to have one now, as long as I could be certain to get the CG right. I would put a set of floats on it, too.

Some planes can tolerate being tail-heavy, and some get nasty, like this particular one. Keep that problem in-check, and I imagine it is a very fine plane.

mikeg7777

My comment was a general statement. If you look up Seagull Models Super Decathlon, there is a thread where some modelers have had the same issue. I agree, it might be corrected with proper center of gravity.

RICKSTUBBZ

Here is a couple pictures I was trying to load yesterday.

foodstick

I really wish I hadn't done that LOW snap roll with mine.. as noted above.. It looked so good after I rebuilt it.. And my buddy never got to see his Dads plane go again..