cliffh

This was my first twin motor aircraft. I've built several GWS planes, Slow Stick, P51 Mustang, Texan, Formaosa II, Pico Tiger Moth, Tiger Moth 400, and others.

I saw a photo of a BN2 somewhere done with Coast Guard colors and really liked that, so that is what I did with this one.

It has the GWS EDP300 brushed motors, 4025 props, a single Electrifly 12 amp esc and I used a 2S 800 mAh lipo. Other than the paint/trim, the plane was built completely stock with the landing gear. Paint was hobby paint from Wal-Mart and just brushed on with a wide brush to avoid brush marks. I also applied a quick, light coat of Testors Dull-Cote to the entire plane to protect the unpainted white foam.

The plane took off from my lawn, short frozen grass, in about 15 feet. There was a breeze of about 8-10 mph. The only surprise was that the plane was amazingly fast. 3 clicks of down trim and it flew perfectly. Loops and rolls were no problem at all. I tried a few stalls. It was difficult to get the plane to do anything other than drop its nose when stalled followed shortly afterward by a gentle wing drop. I found it very easy to avoid and had no problems. The landing was very uneventful with a nice roll-out and taxied back to me.

Prior to my flight, I had serious doubts about the power of this plane. It seemed very weak when held in my hand and powered up. My Wattmeter showed 57 watts total for the 2 motors. You can't imagine my surprise at how well this little plane flew. The little twin motors sound great in the air and the plane looks very scale and gracefull while flying.

During the build, the only minor problem I noticed was that the groove for the torque rods needed to be made a little deeper to line the rods up with the hinge line. Pretty minor.

I can recommend this little park flier to anyone with a little experience that wants to try a twin motor.

firemanbill

Cool! Congrats on the successful maiden. Nice paint scheme too.

cliffh

Thanks. It was very nice to find a plane that is:

a) quite inexensive

b) flys fast, easy, aerobatic on 2 cell lipos!

c) can be made to look scale and nice easily

Great parkflier in my opinion.

Cliff

Kansascloud

Nice job man!

Crash Test Dummy

Very nice. Congrats on the maiden, I have always liked that plane. The paint job is awsome!!

CTD

Bub Steve

Thanks for the heads up on the torque rods needing to be made a little deeper, I'm power'in mine with two storm Launcher motors as mine came with the tiny 100 motors, I also was wary of the motors being mounted to the flimzy plastic cowl, I'm do a Zebra or Cow paint on mine, Yours looks Great!! bub, steve

fr4nk1yn

I have one of these I bought awhile ago for $20 at the LHS.
You've motivated me to finally start building it.

The paint job was something I could figure, you did a great job.

Bub Steve

cliffh: you pushrod advice was VERY timely as I was right in the middle of do'in the steer'in , I wish I'd have got the 300 set-up as the one's (100's) I got were'nt none to big, I only hope mine looks as good as yours! thanks, bub steve

Bill G

This is the plane that really got my flying buddy up to speed on ailerons, using a buddy cord. It's a good plane in that it's a bit easier to fly than a low wing warbird, but not so easy that you will not gain the skill necessary to fly warbirds. About the only issue with this plane is that the plane will drop a wing upon stall with LESS THAN NO WARNING. Don't get this thing slowed down too much on approach.
Ours is still in one piece and doing fine with the stock brushed motors on old 2s-1320 lipos.

The wing is a bit questionable for hard looping, without a brace. I installed a light .040" CF rod, which still allows the wing to flex, but not as badly as it did before, as it looked like the wings were going to tear off. Also feather out epoxy on the wing mounting parts, or better yet tie in with CF also. The top mounted wing gets a lot of stress on this plane.

As seen before in this thread, these things can be had for cheap. I got mine from a hobby shop where the owner was retiring. Couldn't pass it up, where I needed it or not. I even stumbled across a replacement cowl for a buck, when I was buying some other stuff at Epyaya. One of them got a little beat up over time, and now I have a spare.

cliffh

Gee, thanks guys. I really liked the Coast Guard colors, and when you look at them, they are very easy to do. The orange looks great in the air also.

About the tip stall that Bill G mentioned....I didn't experience anything serious at all. My plane just gently drops its nose and after a good warning, tips a wing. Easy to catch....BUT, I think it is easy to build this plane just a little toward the tail heavy side which would cause a more violent stall. Not saying you did anything wrong Bill. A CG a little toward the rear also makes a more manuverable plane. I think it is best to keep the plane just a little on the nose heavy side until you are ready and want to move it back a little at a time.

Time will show how well the cowls hold up. I was surprised at how flimsy the cowls seemed until they were glued into place. After they are mounted, they seem just fine.

Hey, for the money, this is a great kit. A person could do a lot with it....or as little as you want. A great flier on those 2 little motors!

Steve - my wife grew up on a dairy farm and always gets a kick out of your "cow" paint jobs

Bub Steve

cliffh: thanks my bub for your thread and I'm go'in a bit nose heavy as I alway do for maid'ins, I'm try'in to come up with a Orca paint job this time but I need to keep the poundage down too, she may end up a bovine yet! bub, steve

rcers

Great little plane - flew well back in the day on brushed motors too.

We like the same scheme!

cliffh

Since you are trying to keep the weight down Steve, you might want to consider using the stock wheels. I'll admit they look a bit small for rough runways, but my plane takes off great on grass. In fact, the maiden flight was done on FROZEN grass. Those little wheels had to break all those blades of grass over on takeoff. Takeoff was still very quick and easy....uneventfull.

Use the saved weight on the paint job of choice. Just a thought.

Bub Steve

cliffhang'in Bub::Those wheels are super lites an don't weigh squat! HaHaaa! Jeff over at Heads up RC 's got um! I like GWS wheels too! I use um the kids planes I build, The motors on her hover a 5year old Storm Lancher with a 1/2 pound of glue& Epoxy on it so power should'nt be an issue but one never knows,,, You guys are the first to give this plane a good or even so-so review on this plane, I was start'in to think it was a BM2 HaHaaa!I got it to prove them wrong but you Bub's beat me to it! Thanks for the good advice & sopport! your bub, steve

cliffh

Hey THANKS for posting here rcers! It was YOUR plane and photos that gave me the inspiration for my paint job!

My plane has the stock brushed motors. I guess the prop versions come with either 100 or 300 motors. I got mine with the 300's, GWS 4025 props and an 800 mAh 2 cell lipo......and it flies great!

Bub Steve

Both you Bub's done Good! Real Good!!Bub steve ,Ps I got "the twins" together for a famaily photo! HaHaa!

ministeve2003

Hi Guys, I'm currently building a couple of these in the prop and edf versions... For the Prop version, how did you glue the motor/cowl on, did you use gws glue or something else?

Thanks

SK

Bub Steve

Steve: I didn't even try,, anyway if you have a old Storm Launcher you can have a Hotter set-up as I know you like um FAST! bubsteve

Bub Steve

Opps,,I forgot I'd posted here already,,sorry, bubsteve

ministeve2003

Thanks Steve, But I'm keeping them stock for now... I just haven't used much of that GWS glue enough to know if it would be fine glueing the plastic to the foam wing... It looks ok for the foam edf setup (which I'll prob use Foam safe CA)

I might Try Foam CA first just to see if it's quicker... I've been epoxying the fuse's togeather since it only takes 5 minutes... Trying to save some time on these without compromising the stock setup is my main goal...


If you havent seen my posts at the Renegades thread, Here's what I've been working on...

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1254907

SK

Bill G

The good ol' Islander. I have one in the back of the car, that I bought on closeout to get my flying buddy into ailerons. We still fly it. It's actually a nice flyer, in that it's sporty enough to gain good warbird aileron skill, but still easier to fly than many warbirds, especially when horsing it around. The only issue I've found with the plane, is that with low dihedral and no washout, it will tipstall if landed with the wind, which shouldn't be done anyway. The plane has countless flight on 2 old yellow label TP 2s-920 lipos, and stock motors with a GWS ICS400 ESC. I've thought about a bl conversion, as the gear has become much less expensive.

ministeve2003

cool, glad to hear you still like it after so many flights...

do you remember how you mounted the motors? I was thinking Epoxy or CA, but if you think the Gws glue would be better I'd like to do it the right way the first time...

SK

Bill G

I just used the stock motor mounting method, attached to the plastic nacelle front, which is lacking. I epoxied the nacelles to the wing. One of the nacelle fronts has cracks due to motor flexing, which are all CAed to hell but still holding together. I was fortunate to come across 1 spare nacelle for a buck or so, and it's sitting until desperately needed. Can't find these things anymore. One problem with the nacelles, is that you have to slit through the plastic a bit near the wing mounting surface and later reglue, to r&r the motors. The motors seemed to be missing rear bushings in the plastic endbells, and started having issues. I took them out and reassembled them, using bushings from other shot can 300 motors. They've been holding together many flights since.