Gentle Lady ARF

[houdini]

Does anybody have any first-hand experience with the Gentle Lady ARF? Tower is selling them for $99. I've built a few GL kits and know the wood quality wasn't the greatest, so I'm wondering about the quality of the ARF.

I'm surprised there hasn't been much discussion about this plane...

Thanks.

Houdini

[ncd3dg]

Houdini

I too would be very interested in finding out about this ARF, as I have precious little time to build, so something like this would be great if indeed it comes close to decent quality. My Brother built one of these many years back, and it was my first brief exposure to RC and I would love to get something similiar as I am now trying to get into it myself. So if you find out anymore about this kit and or get it yourself please post, as thus far, as you mentioned, no discussion back from the group. I also noticed that the ARF is already on back order into September???

[Joe Minton]

I own one of the new Gentle Lady ARFs. I have launched & flown for about a dozen flights. It performs as a Gentle Lady should and I can find no important fault with it.

Mine weighs 31 ounces with light radio equipment. I use an FMA "Extreme 5" receiver and a pair of HS55 servos. It is unlikely that one could be built to the 22 -- 24 ounces listed on the box.

The model was reasonably straight and required very little work with a heat gun to get the minor wrinkles & warps out of the wing & stab. The decalage was what it was supposed to be and it was easy to get the tail & wing square with one another during assembly. The fuselage is twisted a bit but the wing & stab saddles are aligned.

With the CG & tow hook set per the plans, the test glide was straight & flat. The first launch, with 10# tension on the Hi-Start, was straight, stable & good for about 200 ft. I caught a little rising air and made the flight last several minutes. Subsequent flights were equally good.

The wing should be stronger than a kit-built GL as the top and bottom of the first third of the wing is sheeted. However, this shouldn't be very important since the original was strong enough and the GL was never meant for winch work anyway.

Compaints? Two: First, the bottom of the wing & stab are white --- sure to disappear in haze or under soft white clouds. Second, the thin plastic nose piece is just too fragile --- I cracked mine before I finished the plane. I re-covered the wing & stab in matching dark blue Ultracoat & am making a new nose out of a hunk of balsa. Well, maybe three; I had to tighten the covering twice after the she had been in the sun and sat in my hot car. I'm sure it will settle down soon.

I am already fond of the plane and expect it to give years of good service. It is pretty, a fine flier and I recommend it as probably the best low-price two meter ARF available.

Joe

[lburou]

That Gentle Lady was gentle with me....She was my first ;)

The Sophisticated Lady was a much better flying aircraft in my experience. The flying Stab made a huge improvement over the Gentle Lady in thermal turns, as well as maneuvering for landing.

If the Sophisitcated Lady was offered in ARF, I'd buy one in a heartbeat. :D

[Ollie]

Joe wrote,"However, this shouldn't be very important since the original was strong enough and the GL was never meant for winch work anyway."

This shouldn't leave the impression that the ARF Gentle Lady can't be safely and efficiently launched by winch. All it takes is a skilled and prudent foot on the pedal. See:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141573