RCU Forums - A success story with the GP Profile-38

It was hard to decide which forum to post this in. Kit? Warbird? Profile? Twin wins!

Background: Late last year, my 13-year-old daughter decided that she wanted to build a kit. She has been flying with me about a year and a half ... and learned on an .40 UltraStick running a .46FX. I figured she would pick out a kit like ... an Edge ... or an Ultimate ... but no, she picked up the GP Profile-38 box and said "This one" with a big smile. Who was I to say no ;)

She and a flying friend started building while I stayed out of the way. After a little bit of epoxy and CA ... well, a LOT of CA :) everything was framed, sheeted and repaired (dang thumb holes) it was handed to me to cover ... with those puppy dog eyes ... again, who was I to say no.

We had read about the throttle linkage so we decided up front that we were going to go with micro servos to handle that duty. Now, 6 months into the project, it is finally all put together. It had a few "high spots" that I had to "cover around" ;) and we thought we would fly it before we put the finishing touches on it ... like paint. Now, 2 OS .25 LAs and 7 servos later ... we got the maiden flight out of the way today.

We actually got 3 flights in today. The maiden flight was smooth and short. We had only run 2 tanks of fuel through the LA's so I was a bit "skittish" about them. We roled it onto the field at fast idle and advanced the throttle slow and smooth. I let it run up some speed and after about 150 feet started pulling back on the elevator. It did a smooth and slow climb needing just a few clicks of right aileron. The motors sounded strong but still not in perfect sync. I made 5 circles around the field and slowed to 1/2 throttle on the back leg ... then 1/4 throttle once in my final turn. Once over the end of the field and about 5 feet off the deck, I killed the engines. I just didn't trust them to idle slow enough to slow the plane down. The plane didn't change its approach angle which made me very happy. It slowed very nicely and I was able to set it down on all three wheels.

We "tweaked" the motors a little and the 2nd flight was pretty much the same ... just a few minutes longer. I was still chicken so I landed it dead stick again.

After a little more tweaking, the motors started sounding better and I could actually get them to idle now :D. One more flight. It is now lifting off in about 75 to 100 feet. It is by no means over powered but ... its not a slush pile either. After a few loops, a few rolls, some low slow passes and a few low speed passes, I decided I would see if it would land with both spinners still spinning [:@] I did my final approach just like before except I just let her come down to a medium idle. It was still moving fairly fast but I got a good flare out of it and set 'er down on the mains ... then click down to a slow idle ... both were still running [sm=thumbup.gif]

This is by no means a "relaxing" flyer. I had to stay on top of it the whole time .... not really a hand full ... just had to fly it all of the time. My daughter didn't want to fly it but did ask me how it flew. I said "like a twin engine warbird ... a brick with wings". She said, "Oh, you can have it then." I think she was hoping for performance like a twin engine UltraStick. Nope, sorry. It is a warbird.

I have a bit of experience with a few X-Hydros back in the 80's running twin piped Rossi .60s ... so I am not new to the twin engine world ... just new to twin engines in the air. I know the hard turns that happen when you loose a motor on the water ... and playing with this thing on the ground ... I don't want to experience that in the air.

Now maybe we can get it painted :D