I am thinking about building a new kit to fly for this summer. Which one of these kits builds, and flys the best. This will be my 4th plane but my first scale aerobate. I am wanting something that would be fun to fly, and give me unlimited performance.

Thanks!

SH, You have narrowed it down somewhat but there are still lots of options. I highly recommend the 60 size over the 40. You get a lot more plane for just a little more money.

My personal choice is the Great Planes Extra 300S. The kit is easy to build and the plane is beautiful. Mine has an OS91fs which gives it lots of vertical.

Any of those planes will be lots of fun and you'll have no trouble flying it.

Tom

I have a GP Extra 300 .40. It is a very gentle flier, and also very capable. Very nice low speed and stall characteristics. I've seen some Caps that were not so forgiving at low speeds. That's about all i know on the subject

I have had or flown all of these planes. My favorite is the GP Extra 300 .60. I fly mine with a supertigre 90 and it is one of my all time favorites. If you want to stick with .40 size you might think about the GP Cap 232. I just built one of these for a friend of mine and I could not believe how light it came out. Plus it has a lot of dihedral which will make it easy to handle at low speeds. I built and flew the GP Giles and it was the most difficult of the ones to fly. You have to really be carefull with the elevator throw because a little goes a long way. It was a nice flying plane but it kept me on my toes. Hope this helps.

I went from the extra 300 to the Cap 232, I think the Cap is a more capable aircraft. The Cap remains fully aerobatic at reasonably slow speeds, the extra likes a little more speed through it's maneuvers. The Cap has more roll-coupling in knife-edge flight, it would be worse if it had less dihedral. You can do some 3D with the Cap, not sure about the Extra or Giles. I couldn't get my Extra to do a tight knife-edge S or lomcevak (a real one). The Extra did nice square loops, the Cap will do a stop sign loop if you hold full up elevator (make sure you have the ailerons on high rate) but doesn't like tight elevator events. The Extra was an honest airplane (no bad habits), you have to watch the nose on the Cap, don't let that tail sag on final approach, your wing will stall the stab due to the stab location (keep that in mind and you will have many flights on your Cap, if not, you will be a member of the "Snap" group who don't like Caps). You have to put one of the .70 size FS's on the Cap with a large diameter prop for the best perfomance, it's not designed for high speed (if you want speed, go for the Extra or Giles). If you are going to use the rudder servo location in the rear of the Cap you may want to consider using a .91 FS, I had to add a little weight to the nose with the O.S. .70. I would recommend a pull-pull rudder setup on the Cap, that's one of the few things I would have done differently (may have saved a little nose weight).

I have flown Love my edge's extra and his giles. I have also owned the 40 size GP extra. Out of all of them I would go with the 60 size extra. That plane flies really well. I loved my little extra but if I ever take a notion to have another one it will be the 60 size, with a ys 91! I have seen the cap fly and it looks to be a real good one. I also got to fondle the cap love my edge just built and can't believe how light it came out. I didn't get to weigh it but it for sure is lighter than my 40 size extra was. Cap's are great airplanes but seeing that this is your first "scale" aerobat I would go with the 60 size extra. Its just a little more forgiving, and bigger.