JC's Planes and Projects

Great Planes Giles G-202

I got this plane in the air during the summer of 2000. I had a few puzzling problems that have prevented me from getting much stick time. The first problem was that it would only start once on each visit to the field. Yep, I would get one flight in and would spend the rest of the evening cranking and cursing! Sometimes two or three heads are better than one, and with the help of Bud and Don the cause was traced to an intermittent short in the Dubro remote glow lighter. Huh!? Once I got it running a nasty vibration problem surfaced. This was solved by the use of a beautiful custom cut aluminum spinner from Dave Brown Products. They will cut their spinners for APC props free of charge! I love it and it really smoothed things out. On to problem three...the vibration took its toll on my pilot. He shook loose and ended up facing backward inside the canopy. This was a dilemma because that canopy was screwed and glued on. I ended up fixing things but building a ship in a bottle would have been easier. Well, I was finally able to start flying after these problems were solved.

Builder Notes: If you use a .91 four-stroker, watch out for a nose heavy condition. In my case, moving the battery to the aft of the radio compartment was not even close. I ended up with the battery half-way to the tail! I have also heard of some builders putting the elevator servo in the tail. Build light if you can! At 7.5-lbs my Giles feels like it could use a little more wing. Shim landing gear forward slightly and use 3" wheels if you will be flying off of grass. With the bigger engine, I put in a 12-oz Dubro fuel tank in place of the recommended GP 10-oz tank. I had to sand away a little bit of the fuse former to fit this, but I feel more comfortable with the extra reserve.

Flying: My initial impression of the airplane was OK, but I was expecting phenomenal after everything that I had read about this design. After a few flights it seemed that the plane was nose heavy. I have slowly added weight to the tail and think that it is now close. It is also apparent that this plane, with its stubby wings, has a high wing loading. It is rock solid stable, but lands like a tank - not much float at all. The flip side to the high wing loading is the solid tracking.

I am using the (corrected) control surface travel indicated in the manual except for aileron. I found the low rate aileron fine and the high rate too fast. I cut down the high rate aileron so that it is just a little quicker than low rate. Make sure to visit the GP website for the corrected movements. The plane WILL snap on abrupt application of high-rate elevator- so be mindful of this. I use expo on all surfaces.

Take-offs are a breeze. I did shim the landing gear forward a bit to avoid nose-overs in the grass. The gear placement is now perfect. Advance the throttle, the tail will come up, and the Giles will track very straight down the runway with very little left-turn tendency. When she looks "light" rotate and away you go!

With its large frontal area and wing loading this plane comes down faster than my other birds. Compared to my CAP, it is a bowling ball with wings! It is 1.75 lbs heavier than the CAP with approximately the same wing area. I carry throttle onto final approach and then cut to idle and glide in. I use high-rates to land three point. The plane is rock solid on final and landing. It has no tip stalling or wing dropping tendencies. Just set your attitude a couple feet off the deck and keep pulling back until she three-points the landing.

12/3/00 - I got tired of looking at all the lead in the tail. I did another round with the CG machine and it indicated that I was still nose-heavy. I re-balanced the plane by moving the battery pack backward to a point halfway to the tail! I cut the Monokote and built and mounted a small plywood platform onto which the battery is Velcro'd. Saved about 3-4 ounces in the process.

4/10/01 - Mounted an APC 14x6 prop in an effort to slow the plane down. The plane performed well with this prop, but it allowed the Saito to spin up to 10,300 rpm. I consider that a little high for the Saito. I have since mounted an 15x6 APC. My engine will now peak at 9,100 rpm with this prop. I have not flown with this prop yet. I also added a little more right thrust to get a straighter vertical line. CG position now seems about right, but I will need more flight time to dial this plane in. The Dubro remote glow lighter gremlins surfaced again. The unit was replaced with a Sullivan "Head-Lock" remote glow lighter and it has worked well so far.

4/13/01 - Friday the 13^th! Well, it is also Good Friday and this Friday was good to me. I flew the Giles five times and the additional right thrust has the verticals nearly perfect in the yaw axis. It looks like I could use a touch of down-thrust, though as the plane has a slight tendency to pitch to the canopy as it slows. The APC 15x6 proved to be too much "lumber" for the Saito. I went back to the 14x6 and am very happy with the way it flies on this prop. Vertical is very close to being unlimited - but I am still babying the Saito. The Sullivan "Head-Lock" glow lighter solved the remote glow problems. I think the plane is 90% "dialed" but I need to log some more flights before making any more changes.

6/23/01 - I removed the Perry oscillating pump. I think it was shorting the engine fuel in the verticals. I could hear the Saito detonating. I also had to keep a high idle to avoid a dead-stick after a hammerhead. The engine runs fine without the pump. The mid-range does seem a little rich and spongy but this is easy to adapt to. I have not had any dead-sticks after hammerheads or spins. Fuel consumption is up, probably due to being richer for a larger part of the power band.