How many actually fly?

[Xanadu]

How many of you actually are successful at flying a Guillows model?

Gas, electric, or rubber?

Which ones?

[Xanadu]

No success, the ones that did years ago, smashed real bad when that .020 pulled them into the ground.

Did a P-51, times 2.

No more flying them after destroying 2 of them, I bought Carl Goldberg C/L kits instead to fly back then. But that was over 25 years ago.

Now, I am getting into RC, but not a Gulliows..............yet anyways.

[supercruiser]

I've had good success getting the Guillow models to fly, rubber band powered. Some of the 900 series did not fly well, meaning they only flew about 100 feet or zip around in a wide circle in about 6 seconds. The best fliers that I have so far are the Fairchild 24, the Javelin and The Flyboy, kit no. 4401. I've heard that the 300 series Cessna 170 is a nice flier.

[jerry l campbell]

some 40 years ago I built a zero, covered it with 1/32 balsa sheet and installed an .049 engine in it. I always prefered scale so I even put as much of a cockpit as possible including MGs protruding throught inst panel.
The only real mistake I made was that I didn't beef up the landing gear so the landing gear was a little weak. It flew on a single teather line attached to a single pole in the center of a room in the back of a hobby shop in Wayne Mich. I intend to do this with the Fw 190. Has any one else flown teather line with the guillow kits? jerry campbell now in Texas

[jamesgood72]

Hello. I built and flew my Guillows Fairchild 24, electric r/c. It flew very nicely, but you have to keep it really light.

http://www.virtualaerodrome.com/image_b ... category=0

-James.

[kittyfritters]

I got back into modeling about four years ago on a bet. The bet was that I could get a 500 series Stuka, built with the kit wood, to fly for more than 10 seconds. I got it to fly, reliably, in the 13 to 19 second range. (See photo in the "Guillows Fly or Hangar Queen" thread.)

Since then I have built two 500 series Spitfires (another bet), 900 series typhoon and Mustang, a 300 series Aeronca and a Fairchild 24. All rubber powered, all fly over 30 seconds and some have topped a minute.

That's not really impressive. Impressive is Orv Olm who took 5 Guillows kits to the FAC Nats this year, took a couple of catagories outright and didn't place lower than 5th in anything he entered.

With very few exceptions, every kit I have ever built, no matter who supplied it, needed some sort of re-engineering to make it fly well, but if you can build light and know how to trim for flying, Guillows kits are a very good value for the money.

[Madman Stephan]

I tried flying a kit once. I was 12. It was a Spitfire, rubber powered. I climbed on the barn, wound the propeller, and let 'er rip! The plane went out 20 feet, did a 180 degree turn, hit the side of the barn and fell to the ground (on cement). I felt like I had just thrown my own child over a bridge. Not likely to do that again anytime soon. If I'm going to spend 3 - 6 months building a plane, it won't be to watch it go to pieces in 10 seconds.

[supercruiser]

Hey Madman,
Give it a try again.
I did something similiar. I built the Guillow Fokker Tri-plane, in my early teens.
Took a long time to build. All that beautiful wood structure; I didn't want to cover it. But, I built it to FLY. Stood on the top of a big hill, wound the rubber motor and gave it a gently shove... it traveled about 10 feet in a steep climb and did a 180 degree turn and returned to the ground at the same steep angle.

The key is to trim it to glide, first. Over tall grass. Once it glides well , it's just a matter of gradually increasing the number of rubber turns and making small thrust and trim changes.
Why not try the Guillow Cessna 170, a nice looking airplane, and I hear that it flies well? Or like me; I built the Javelin, I had several enjoyable summer afternoons, last year, watching it slowly circle overhead and then glide to a landing. The model still is intact and hangs from my ceiling, ready to fly again.

[kittyfritters]

Hi Madman,

You picked what is probably the most difficult model to trim, the Spitfire, as your first effort. If it was the small 500 series Spitfire, even more so. The elliptical wing makes it very sensitive to the transition from power-on to power-off flight usually resulting in a tip stall and spin after the motor winds down. You can get the Spitfire to fly well, but it takes experience and very careful building.

Try a Guillow's Fly Boy, Lancer or Javelin first before going back to the scale models. Then the 600 series Piper or Cessna. The 500 series WWII models are small and inexpensive but require a lot of work to get to fly. The boxes say "scale model for adult collector" on the front. They may as well say "for experienced modelers only".

Keep 'em flying!

Howard

[supercruiser]

My Fairchild is completely stock: built with all the kit wood, used the kit rubber band, and tissue (with one coat of acrylic sprayed on). It tracked straight on the first flight. Typical, it woulld climb straight ahead to a height of 10 or 12 feet and travel 150 feet. Problem was the rubber motor just couldn't be wound too much.
This time I changed the front cowling so that it is removable. (IT's now held in place with two rare earth magnets). Opened up the hole in Former A, to allow the big rubber knots to pass through. This allowed a me to stretch wind a bigger rubber motor. 4 strands of 3/16" width, Peck Polymers rubber. So I took it to the local flying field, this past Saturday. There were 4 or 5 other guys there with their planes. This time the extra torque caused the plane to fly a large, left-hand circle. After circling overhead one 360 degree turn, it straigthened out and glided to an o.k. landing. It appears that the flight times nearly doubled.

[freefall]

I have succes building and flying guillows kits,I do substitute some wood here and there and use aftermarket props,Ron

[scigs30]

If you build a Guillows kit straight, it will fly. If you really want it to fly for a long time, then you have to throw out all the kit contents and start over. I have built them both ways. When I was younger I would build the kit with quality balsa and tissue. Also I would place holes in the ribs, emit stringers and some ribs. I started a Rufe and I am not modifying anything. I wish Guillows would laser cut all there kits.

[Hank]

I have built several rubber powered. They fly but not for a long time

I usually don't spend as much time as I should flight trimming. I know guys build Guillows models that fly for well over 1 minute duration, but I usually make a couple of flights in the 15 to 25 second range and then bring the model in for display

[Thewonderfrog]

So far I have tried to fly 11 different guillows models on Rubber power and the rest I built as static or as R/C. Results below.

Kit #201 Thomas Morse S4C Scout. built this with Dihedral on both wings and 3Ch RC control Rudder, Elevator, Throttle. Flies well enough, but the wind is not your friend.

Kit 204 Fokker DR1..Static display, but I do plan on doing another to fly.

Kit 302 Cessna 170..current project under construction with 3 Ch R/C control. Weight should come out to under 4.2 ounces. Should fly well.

Kit 406 FW-190.. this one flies, but needs some modification to keep it from tip stalling when it gets into the wind.

501 P-40. this was the easiest of the 500 series kits to get to balance and thus weighs the least and flies the best of the series.

502 FW-190 this one took a fair amount of nose weight to balance, but still flies well, although not for as long.

503 hellcat. another good flier that came out lighter and therefore has longer flights

504 spitfire. this one is the heaviest of my 500 fleet and never flew very well.

505 BF-109 Messerschmitt. This one was fairly easy to build straight and it flew ok after some weight was added in the nose.

506 Hurricane.. too heavy to be a good flier unless you substitute wood and add lightening holes.

507 Nakajima Rufe..This one doesn't fly, static only with floats.

508 Stuka.. I have my doubts about this one, i built it to fly but it came out so nice that its a hangar queen and I haven't tried it yet. Its a bit on the heavy side and the landing gear adds weight and something to get snagged up.

509 TBF avenger..needs speed to fly well, once the rubber motor winds down it drops out of the air quickly..not a floater.

906 Typhoon...the most surprising plane of all, flies easy 30 seconds on provided rubber power. Only needed 5 grams of weight ( 1 nickel) to balance. flies beautifully, big left hand turns under power and nice level straight glide to a gentle touchdown even when flown in 8 MPH winds. I Didn't cover it so well and the tissue job has some to be desired, but sure does fly well.

1001 In progress for 5 channel control ( Ail, Flap, Elev, Rudd, Throttle), hoping it flies well.


Next in line I have a 203 laser cut nieuport 11, another laser cut tommy morse kit 201, 303 piper super cub, 307 piper cherokee and a 802 Skyhawk. All will be Rubber except the skyhawk which will be 5 ch control with the rudder slaved to the front wheel for steering

[flash52]

I flew the Rufe without floats.I guess thats a zero. The Javelin
was the best flier. In '69 I flew the large FW 190 on control line
with a Golden Bee for power. First flight ended hitting a spectators
front bicycle wheel with the outer wing during landing. Clipped the
outer wing off at the root. I was a little upset.