JetCatJimmy

I've been out of the hobby for a while but have been wanting to get back in for a couple years now. I've had my eye on a powered glider that looked great. The Great Planes Tori 2M Two Meter EP Electric RC Airplane Glider Rx-R - Model # GPMA1819. It looks great and comes nearly built. So I finally pulled the trigger and bought one. The build was straight forward and after a day I had it ready to fly. CG was right on the money. I took it out to a huge field and threw it to check trim. It was good! So I gave it about 20% throttle and tossed it again.

It flew beautifully until the motor rips itself from the nose. This happened within 90 seconds on its first flight. It flies great and tracks well. But the torque from the very powerful motor and prop is too much for the fiberglass fuse and it just rips right out and the prop shreds the fuse as they separate. You now have a motor going one direction and your severely tail-heavy plane that you have to try to bring down. Mine broke the carbon boom and some spars in the wing when it landed. I couldn't find all the pieces from the motor and prop/spinner.

Luckily I called Horizon Hobby and described the problem. They were kind enough to send me a replacement plane at no cost. Very cool customer service! And they said that it must have been a fluke with that one plane. But after building it and taking it out, it also came apart at 3/4 throttle doing a simple pull-up from level flight. Ridiculous!

Don't waste your time with this plane. It needs serious rework. Unless you limit throttle to maybe 50% it will come apart from the torque. I'm unsure why HH hasn't had more complaints about this plane. I imagine EVERY person that flies this above 50% throttle will have the exact same result.

My last call to HH was the explain that it happened AGAIN. But rather than give me some type of credit for another plane or 'anything' at all they asked me to send in the plane for inspection. At least they're paying for the shipping!

Now I have to say that I never want anyone to pay for my mistakes. If I crash a plane, I accept that. All the way up to the turbines I flew. I know what I did and I learn from it. But this was a design flaw. That's why I feel differently about the money I spent on this. It's like buying a car and the minute you drive it, it ejects the engine into the street and crashes. It wasn't your fault, and you just hope the manufacturer will stand behind their product and make it right. We'll see what happens.

Anybody else have similar issues?


This was the first model. You can see it ripped itself from the front of the fuse.

First model pics.

First model pics

Second model. You can see it did the exact same thing. The fiberglass can't handle this motor.

Second model. Ridiculous that they sell a model with this combo

Second model.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

I've noticed on the Bird of Time that GP used to do that the glasswork was very poorly done too. Looks like the same thing in your pictures. The gel coat is way too thick and the layup is done with a single sheet of heavy plain weave cloth. IMO worse case scenario for the task.

JetCatJimmy

I agree with you. There was no cross-weave that could have handled the torque from the motor. I'm thinking of installing a smaller motor on the nose and rebuilding. Making it how it should have been built. Thanks for your input!

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

Depending on your ESC you can program a soft start but that would only be a band aid. The first 6" of that fuselage should be carbon fiber. Not really possible as they use polyester resin which doesn't work well with CF. Their entire process is flawed. I could make that same fuselage at 2/3 the weight and double the strength. That's the problem with bean counters running a hobby business, they see the price first, then looks and performance last. They think putting out cheap crap is making them money right up to the point of filing chapter 11.

JetCatJimmy

So I rebuilt this plane. It's just too nice looking a wing to throw it out. I decided to go with an external motor to make install and maintenance easy. I chopped off some of the nose, laid up more fiberglass, and glued in a new motor mount to hopefully offset the smaller motor and external location. This fiberglass is WAY stronger than the flimsy crap HH used on this to save $ and weight. I did take a little more than I needed though so I had to add about 1.75oz of lead to the nose. But it now flies BEAUTIFULLY and with proper power with the brushless 400. It's not as pretty as it was before, but that doesn't really matter to me. I'm just having fun - not winning any contests here.

Comparison of the new motor with the old

Rhinoplasty



I really miss doing one-off work like this. I guessed on the sanding of the new motor mount ply and nailed it!

Fromearth

Same thing happened to me.
i ordered the receiver-ready Tori. A few seconds into the first flight the motor separated from the fuse. Horizon Hobbies replaced it with a new Tori. It did the same exact thing. I called Horizon for a refund. They said store credit was the best that they could do. Well, I don’t like foamies, and all of their decent planes are unavailable, or on backorder. So I ordered a new ARF and a few supplies. Not too happy.

JetCatJimmy

That's nuts! They said emphatically that my issue was the ONLY time they'd heard of the motor leaving the fuse and that it was a one-off problem. Then it happened to the replacement model they sent. And now it's happened to you TWICE. Ridiculous. Well I hope you fix it up. It's worth the trouble rebuilding. It's a great plane and it thermals well.

I've moved up to a 1M F3K discus launch glider and about to buy a 3.6M F5J. Those carbon planes are gorgeous. But the Tori will always have a place here for easy fun.

jorgepi

Exactly the same thing happend to me, on the first fligth too. I managed to land it without any further damage.
Bought it on Tower Hobbies, but since I'm outside US I did not wasted my time trying to get a refund from them.
For sure a very bad manufactured product.

Regards

JetCatJimmy

This is ridiculous. They SWORE to me that they'd never had any complaint like this before. Now I'm sure they were lying. It's happened 5 times to that model now that we know of. That's just shameful.

xplayer930

Sorry for all the misfortune you guys have experienced. I'm also just getting back into the hobby. Purchased a SIG Riser 100 which I plan to power with a Eflite 480. Its pretty crazy how QA is that low. As for the foamies I honestly think it takes away half the fun of this hobby and doesn't make me miss it nearly as much.

JetCatJimmy

I ended up moving into carbon fiber and am loving the difference. I bought a 1M Deviant from Armsoar. It's a DLG and THAT'S been interesting to learn! Then I moved up to the big boy - F5J. Although just for fun. I'm not competing. But I bought an 11' wingspan carbon Shadow 2 from SoaringUSA. It's crazy how tough it is to build these. The Deviant is TINY inside and the controls are spring-loaded pull-only type for the tail. SO different than what I'm used to.

The Shadow 2 didn't even come with instructions, and the examples on here were NOT best practice after talking to the really great guys at SUSA. With their guidance I got her done and she floats like nothing I've ever seen.