Thunder Tiger Giles 202 EP Profile

That was a nice report. Thanks for posting.

Ed Cregger

Got another chance to fly indoors today, and I managed to put the Giles 202 EP Profile to the test. I was flying around for a while and getting comfortable when I decided to try to fly inverted for a while. I rolled the plane over and pulled back on the elevator like a dumbass, which resulted in an immediate "splat!"

The plane hit squarely on the nose, doing (surprisingly) almost no damage at all. Thunder Tiger has the fuselage nicely reinforced at the nose and it really saved me today! I did manage to snap the drive shaft. When I came home I ordered a couple of them as they're only about five bucks. I figured I may as well get an extra one.

The plane is none the worse for my clumsiness, and changing out the drive shaft will take but a few turns of a phillips head screwdriver when the spares arrive. I'm looking forward to doing plenty more flying with my Giles 202 EP soon. Will keep you posted as to my progress and whatever further destruction I manage to create.

We had an unusually warm and calm day for late December here in Nebraska today. I decided to take full advantage of it by hauling my TT Giles 202 EP Profile out to the flying field along with another electric plane I have. I've never flown the Giles 202 EP Profile outside before, and I was looking forward to opening it up without walls and a ceiling to contend with!

The afternoon proved to be quite rewarding. It was almost dead calm at my home when I got in the car, but our flying field is on top of a hill by a lake a few miles northwest of where I live. When I got to the field and unloaded my gear, the wind was blowing about 5 to 10 mph out of the south. The review of the TT Giles 202 EP Profile in the Jan '06 issue of Backyard Flyer said that the plane handled moderate wind just fine, so I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. I managed to knock the wheel pant off of the right side of the landing gear while flying indoors. I'd glued it back on twice already, and I figured it wouldn't survive the flight.

We have an asphalt runway at Hawk field (

), so I just plugged in the battery, armed the ESC by pushing up throttle then down throttle, and setting the Giles on the runway pointed into the wind. As always, the plane rolled smoothly along on it's excellent landing gear before jumping up into the air. The wind helped the Giles climb quickly and I finally got a chance to really give it the juice for the first time while actually flying.

The brushed 370 speed motor pulled the Giles through the air with terrific speed. It was quite apparent that the stock motor included with the plane was more than enough for 3D aerobatics when mated to an 11.1V LiPo pack. The plane rolled and tumbled and spun through seemingly impossible positions, then quickly and without hesitation it would level out and pull itself out of any angle when I corrected the stick inputs.

I thought to myself that the wind might actually be more fun than if the day had remained as calm as I was expecting it to stay. My initial impression was that I was flying some kind of crazy high-tech stunt kite that would whirl and tumble, only to right itself and fly in smooth and predictable ovals like a glow plane once I changed my radio inputs. The plane looked as good as it flew, with the bright, vibrant colors keeping the plane easy to see as I took it higher and further than flying indoors had previously allowed me.

I'm no expert at 3D flight, or even particularly adept and traditional aerobatics. I wasn't really practicing any specific stunt or manuver. I simply stood next to the runway and blasted the plane full throttle into the wind while making it roll and tumble in ways I've never dared try with my glow planes. When I'd get far enough upwind to make orientation recognition a bit of a challenge, then whip the plane around and streak it downwind of me only to repeat the cycle.

Alas, a 640ma LiPo pack can only provide so much entertainment. The BEC on the ESC kicked on and the Giles 202 EP Profile fell into a steep but managable glide. I cranked the elevator control back just before the Giles touched down and feathered it into a not-quite-perfect landing. The already huge grin on my face spread ever-so-slighty further as I walked up to pick up the plane and discovered that the right wheel pant was still solidly glued in place.

The other electric I brought with me was a Green Models (

)Colorful Butterfly. It's an old-timer style high wing three-channel plane. The Jan '06 issue of Fly RC had a review of the Color Butterfly under the name of Winner R/C Lazy Days. Power-Line RC and Winner RC both import the model from Green Models, but sell them under different names. The Color Butterfly comes with a 370 speed brushed motor, but otherwise has little in common with my Giles 202 EP Profile.

I had originally purchased the Color Butterfly to fly indoors. I'd found it for $69.00 at a local hobby store, and that included the battery, motor, and ESC. The plane was just a little too fast to fly at the indoor soccer center. The Color Butterly loses control when the throttle is cut, you have to power it through turns. The first time I flew it indoors I'd made one turn successfully and then promptly smacked the wall with it after about 20 to 30 seconds of flying time. It had been easy enough to repair, but I hadn't had much reason to fly it while it was still nice enough to take up my TT Tiger Stick .40 and Goldberg Tiger 2. The Color Butterfly had sat around my house for months.

I was concerned that the Color Butterfly wouldn't handle the wind quite as well as my Thunder Tiger foamy had flown, but it was a nice sunny afternoon when I should have been knee deep in snow. I figured if I couldn't fly the Color Butterfly indoors and I couldn't fly it outdoors, I may as well crash it. At least then I could pull the radio equipment out of it and buy another Thunder Tiger EP Profile. Since I had nothing to lose, I set the Color Butterfly out on the runway like I had the Giles and punched the throttle.

Like the Giles 202 before it, the Color Butterfly rolled up the runway into the wind for a short distance before hopping up into the sky. My fears about the Color Butterfly's flight worthiness were quickly dissolved. The Butterfly too climbed quickly into the headwind and soared above the flying field steadily and gracefully. The flight characteristics of the two planes couldn't have been more different, but I enjoyed my flight time with the Color Butterfly just as much. I would plow ahead through the wind until the plane was far out in front of me, then whip it around with a rudder turn and rush it downwind of me, rinse and repeat.

When the BEC finally kicked in on the Color Butterfly, it glided down toward the ground at a much more gentle rate. I eased back the throttle and got the motor turning again to provide a little extra assistance while landing and the bright green high winged plane set down smoothly on the grass next to the runway. My grin was much the same as it had been after flying the Giles 202 despite the radically different flight characteristics of the two aircraft.

It had been a blast finally getting to open up the Giles 202 EP Profile and seeing what it could do in open space. Getting an enjoyable flight in on the Color Butterfly was an added bonus as I realized that I'd mentally written it off as a waste of money months ago. Maybe the Color Butterfly was more fun now because I was actually getting to be a bit better as a pilot finally. In any event, there was a special pleasure to be derived from sneaking out for an enjoyable bit of flying on a rare winter's afternoon when the weather forgets that it is December, if just for a day or two.

Hopefully I've been good enough this year that St. Nick might drop a couple of extra LiPo and NiMH packs into my stocking. I wouldn't mind spending some more time wringing extra flight time out of my electric planes!

Great write up and sounds like you had a very nice day Ed. It brightened my day up just reading it. Relegated to the building board here as the weather has been grotty for a while... still, I will have something new to fly next year >:-)

Reg

Ed,

Sounds like a blast, may be something I need to get myself for Christmas to keep handy in the car in case I get stranded one day....

What ESC, receiver, and servos are you using on yours?

Thanks, Steve

I got the chance to take the TT Giles 202 EP Profile back inside today. Our flying area was cut in half by a large net protecting us from soccer balls and the soccer players from stray planes and helicopters. My confidence with flying the Giles EP indoors is growing; a few weeks ago I'd have been more nervous about the tight flying area, but today I was feeling confident and just plain glad to be flying.

I fired up my Futaba 7CAP and plugged in the LiPo battery, attaching it squarely to the velcro on the plane's fuselage while centering on the marks I made when balancing it. A quick up then down on the throttle stick armed the ESC and I was ready to go. The plane rolled out in front of me on the astroturf and smoothly sped up to takeoff speed as I advanced the throttle. At about 1/3 throttle, the Giles 202 EP has enough power to fly smoothly around the indoor soccer field while still maintaining good control.

The plane was flying ovals for me easily. I had done a little bit of extra trimming when I flew it outdoors last week, taking out a bit of extra "up" from the elevator resulted in smoother flying both outdoors and indoors. I was spending less time trying to keep the plane from "porpoising" and more time just enjoying watching the plane fly where I pointed it. Just having the elevator trim off a little bit had left me fighting to keep the plane off the ceiling a couple of weeks ago, now the plane was smooth and steady.

I was doing so well with simply flying ovals that I decided to get cocky and see if I could replicate some of my rolls and loops from my outdoor flights the previous week. Should I have known better? Probably, but let's just say that loops and rolls are a tough proposition when you're flying around indoors at 1/3 throttle. I tried to roll the plane over inverted and continue flying my oval pattern, but as slowly as I was flying there was a much bigger difference between "battery side up" and "battery side down" than I'd expected.

The oval continued through about one quarter of its track when the plane flipped out of its inverted attitude unexpectedly and plopped toward the ground. I might have pulled out of the stall if I'd been quicker on the throttle, but my glow instincts kicked in and I cut the power instead while cranking back on the elevator stick. My first trainer was a Hobbico Nexstar, and I think it often flew better with the engine off than it did under power. Well the Giles 202 EP just plunked down onto the astroturf, right side up, and none the worse for my clumsy handling.

A couple of the guys standing near me let out small but audible gasps like they always do when one of us crashes a plane, but I just chuckled and took the Giles EP back up from where it had landed. I took another couple of laps in my oval pattern to regain my courage before trying an aileron roll. What can I say? I usually learn my lesson after the first mistake, but I hadn't done any harm on my last attempt, so I decided to mess around some more. I gained a bit of additional altitude and began rolling the plane over, but I had the throttle too low and the plane fell out of the roll and rushed toward the astro turf once again.

This time the plane didn't just plop down, it bounced! It landed right side up again, but from the higher altitude, the wheel pants came flying off the landing gear shooting straight off in both directions! I got more gasps from the peanut gallery, and this time I thought I might have actually done some damage. As I walked out toward where the plane sat though, I realized that it was sitting there waiting to take off just as it had been after my previous flop. I powered it up and took it around again.

Bouncing it hard twice had done nothing to affect the smooth, stable slow flying characteristics of the Giles EP. I took a few more laps, then brought it in for a closer look. I brought the plane in and rolled it up to where I was standing and set my radio down. I walked out and picked up the foam wheel pants from where they lay. The wheel pants were ready to be glued back on and all of my bouncing had simply crinkled a little bit more of the nose foam where it had pinched in a bit from my nose-in two weeks previously. This time I didn't have a broken drive shaft to contend with, so I counted my blessings as I admired my tough little foam wonder plane.

I stood and watched a few of the other guys fly for a while. For some reason, not too many of the other guys like flying at the same time I'm bouncing my plane around the soccer field. I wonder why? I still had some juice left in the battery pack, and I wanted to end my indoor flying session on a good note. A short while later, a couple of the guys brought their planes down and I launched the Giles 202 EP for another flight.

I'd learned my lesson. I decided I'd wait for some additional nice weather and I'd practice the fancy flying at higher speed when I didn't have a ceiling to worry about. I've mentioned before that I'm no expert when it comes to aerobatics, but I'll get there eventually. I spent a good five minutes lapping our half of the soccer center (

) and just enjoying some smooth, level flying.

A couple of guys cringed a bit, thinking I was getting too close the net that separated us from the soccer players. The plane really was handling nicely though, and I felt like I had good control as I approached the net then threw it into its turn. I flew out the rest of the battery's charge without any more incidents, when the BEC finally kicked in. The motor wound down and I cranked up on the elevator to bring the Giles EP down with one last gentle "plop." I had just enough juice left to taxi the plane over to where I was standing.

I know the rest of the guys probably d>

Hey, Steve! I'm running the hardware I ordered for the GP Flatout Cap 580 from Tower Hobbies:

-Electrifly C-12 micro ESC

-Electrifly 11.1v 640ma LiPo

-GWS 4-channel pico receiver

-3 GWS pico servos

Everything seems to be a good match so far. One of these days when I'm really, really bored I'll have to pull that GP Flatout back out of the box and see if I can't finally finish building it, too.

good site for Giles 202 3D EP

-- bluekit

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