Anyone own a GP Tracer 40 size plane? I'm sending in my order soon, should I buy it? I want an aerobatic aircraft, not too picky, but I want it too handle well.
-- Wood floats... We can make it fly...
Stefan Pettersen
I have one, am building another. I haven't crashed one yet
It is a little tricky to land. When balanced so that it snaps well (about
1/8 inch behind the center of the balance range), it is hard to tell if it is about to stall. You need to keep the speed up until touchdown to prevent an inadvertent low-altitude snap roll. It will land on its main gear nicely, but rolls forever without some kind of drag. (For contests, I use a piece of fuel line between the wheel and the outer wheel collar.)I have never tried retracts. I have watched many people spend time repairing retracts rather than flying.
As specified, the non-retract installation does not have enough torsion spring length. On the one I am flying now, I made a new set of main gear with coil springs using a Higley (spelling?) wire bender and coil winder to get enough spring without bending. The one I am building is modified to give a torsion spring length about 50% longer than stock.
i used an after-market cowl from Fiberglass Specialties. It weighs a ton, but is indestructable> (Well, maybe not, but it is tough). However, overheating is a problem ith the .46 FX I am using on both models. The one I am building is made with a wood, permanently attached cowl with the bottom completely open. I am trying to eliminate the 1.5 ounces of weight I had to add to the tail of the first model.
I got a 4th place in Sportsman at our local pattern meet, with a field of (I think) 10. It flies as well as I can.
-- Mike Norton
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