How many people here own or has flown the GWS Zero? If you have flown it, how does it perform?

I just bought one yesterday and am in the process of putting it together. I will let you know how it goes...I've heard nothing but good things about it though.

The Zero was my first low wing, aileron, "aerobatic" plane. She was a decent flier definently got her share of bangs and scrapes. If you build the plane by the manual it'll fly but there are a few easy mods that'll make her a lot more stable. If you'd like to know email me and I'll make a new post about it with pics and all. I'm kinda in a hurry so if you want I'll post it.

Before gluing the fusalage together open up the battery compartment so that the battery can be slid more forward. The recommended CG is a bit far back on this bird (short nose). Mine flew very squirrelly until the CG was moved forward. The supplied glue is really a form of contact cement. If you use it...apply to both surfaces...press together and immediatly separate. Let it dry for about 5-7 minutes and then carefully put the halves together. (Unfortunatly not in the construction manual)It will not allow you to adjust the parts so be careful. If you use the glue like epoxy it will just sit there and will take about a week to cure (if at all). Definatly not a beginner plane but flies nice in experienced hands. Some other mods to consider are lowering the angle of attack on the wing with a small spacer under the LE where it sits on the fusalage. Some others have slightly raise the leading edge of the horz stab with almost same effect. I have 3 tiny sets of rare earth magnets holding on the wing. Less damage in the event of a cartwheel landing. good luck.

Gizzmo, here is the tread

I just finished fine tuning my Zero. Here is what I did and why.

Before test flying I have read, and heard from guys on the field, that the CG is wrong in the manual.

Move the CG to the wooden spar. I use an 8 cell KAN 1100mah so I had to cut out the foam to allow the pack to slide all the way forward so that it touches the cowling in order for the CG to be correct.

At that point it flew ok, but wanted to climb all of the time. Actually it flew great as far as handling goes. It does what you want.. except for the climbing part.

Next, since I am using a small brushless motor(Himax 2015-4100), I added 2 to 4 degrees of downthrust to try to correct this. No luck there. Flew slightly better but still wanted to climb all of the time. When I would do a dive it would pull itself out almost immediately. I was able to trim it to get it to fly correctly but then I was unable to fly inverted. If you are using the stock motor I would skip this step unless you later decide you need it.

I also tried changing the incidence of the main wing. I added 7/32" which translated to 4 degrees less on the angle of attack. This did absolutely nothing different.

After speaking to a couple more people on the field about their Zeros I decided to try one more thing. Adjust the elevator so that the bottom of the stabilizer and elevator are on the same plane. To do this I put the plane upside down and put a ruler on the stab/elev and adjusted it until they both touched the ruler flat. From the top of the plane this looks like down elevator.

This last step may seem rediculous but I saw a guy flying his this way and it was flying straight and level until he made it climb. I was about ready to retire the plane after 3 flights because I dont like flying a plane that I have to trim everytime I change the amount of throttle. When I set it up in this manner and launched it I was very pleased. Now it flies level no matter how much throttle I give it and responds correctly to up and down elevator. Also, flies great inverted.

Now its what it should be. Stable, good handling, and pretty quick. Of course the brushless helps on that last part.

I did something like you did. There is a lip on the outer edge of the wing fillet, about 1/8 of an in. thick. I trimmed the rear of the saddle till the lip is a sharp edge, and tapered it to the front, so the wing is more parallel with the stab, essentially raising the rear of the wing by about an1/8 of an in. Added downthrust too. Now you can crank the throttle on at any speed and it goes in a straight line without climbing.