I built this plane about 14 years ago. It was my first RC plane and my entry into the hobby.

After I finished the plane I moved back to California and 13 years went by before I decided to get back into RC.

I've been flying for the last year.

Here is a photo of the plane and a short video of a recent flight.




[link=http://revver.com/video/2274600/rc-airplane-birds-eye-view-of-southern-california/]GP Trainer 60 at Fallbrook Flyers club[/link]

Nice looking plane!

Gee what a nice video and flying model. Really enjoyed your aerial trip into the sky. Would like to know what engine you have installed. The video sound did not make it clear as to the engine speed during the flight. It was encouraging to see that no needle valve tweeking was needed as you already had the fuel amount dialed in from previous flying. Welcome back to the joy of RC flying. Thanks for sharing.

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Nice looking plane and video. How about the low down on the camera? I'm trying to convince my wife, shes also a pilot, that we need airborne video.

e30pg,

Nice to see another GP trainer. I took mine out of mothballs about two years ago and started flying again. Mine is a 20 yr old Trainer 40. Most people mistake it for a PT 40 when i tell them it a Great Planes Trainer 40. The trainer series came before the PT series and has a semi-symetrical airfoil.

skeeter

The engine is a Thunder Tiger Pro .61. Back when I built the plane and installed the engine I actually ran a couple of tanks of fuel through the engine to break it in. After that I added some 3-1 oil, moved and never touched it until about Nov '08 when I decided to make it air worthy again.

I pulled the engine out of the plane and used alcohol to clean out the engine. It had a little bit of rust in the muffler (the long screw that runs the length of the muffler). I put it on a test stand and it started right up.

The engine runs great. It starts right up and it's fast. I've had to dial down the speed a little with a lower pitch prop but the plane flies great.

The camera is one of those small video cameras that are the size of a pack of gum. They cost around $60.

Here's a photo of the camera mounted in my GP Escapade. I build a mount for the camera out of wood (the mount is white).

In my opinion, the semi-symetrical wing makes this plane.

Every time I bring this plane to the field it gets positive comments.

Thanks
Paul Q

Just a couple months ago i converted mine to a taildragger. When building it 20yrs ago i knew i wanted to be able to convert it later so i added extra reinforcement inside the tail area to mount the tail gear. I'm still relearning to take off and land but loving it too.

skeeter

One of our club members has a Trainer 60 that he thinks he built around 20 years ago. It has some dings but is a solid airframe and he loves flying it. He loaned the plans to my brother so eventually there will be a second one.

When we first saw it we thought it was a regular primary trainer. After looking at it closely we realized it is really more like an aerobatics trainer. It seems like it's more like a "stick" than a "trainer" in many ways.

That's a good comparison. It's like a cross between a stick and a trainer.

Found another good photo in-flight