Heya Guys,

Thought I would start a "GWS" thread for those of us who are flying these planes again. Seems like most of the GWS threads are very old and have not been used for a while.

I would guess that a lot of people fairly new to the hobby have no experience with any of these planes, but with some them coming out now in the new EPO foam, perhaps that will change.

There was a time a few years ago when nearly everyone at the flying fields had at least one GWS air plane, and they make some very good park flyers if you build them right.

I have flown most of their models at some point - most back when I first got into the hobby about 10 years ago. A lot of us really learned the how to fly on these airplanes.

With the cheap Chinese electronics now, you can build a lot of these airplanes for under 100 bucks - pretty reasonable for a plane that is likely to fly very well.

Perhaps some others will chime in here and we can see who is still flying these plane. I would also hope that some of the "Building Tricks" will be posted here that many of have learned over time.

I still fly a very old Pico Moth, which I still think is one the best beginner airplanes on the market. They fly pretty slowly and are tough enough to take some abuse.

I also just build another Moth 400 which flys superbly - not a bad aileron trainer since it just has ailerons on the lower wings.

And I just ordered a Stearman - another of my favorite planes from the past - and am starting to put together a Formosa - the smaller one - which has been sitting in a box for several years now.

Who else is still flying these airplanes?

Wolfe

thing is one used to see gws all over the place..now they have completly dissaperd...I hve no idea whats out there or where to buy...

urs

They are starting to become available again.....

http://www.headsuprc.com/servlet/the...its/Categories

http://www.bphobbies.com/view.asp?id...51444272001795

http://searchrc.horizonhobby.com/ind...500&N=5001+630

http://secure.hobbyzone.com/index/gws/

I imagine others have them too.

Wolfe

I've started my own GWS tribute thread off on the Electric Plane Talk forum. I'm a huge fan. So far I've owned two small Formosas, two large ones, and a GWS Texan. Of these, one of the small Mosas and the Texan are still flying. Always loved the way they fly. They can be a pain to build but they're all great flyers. For some reason they haven't caught on much with my flying buddies.

I now have a Modified Slow Stick and a GWS Zero.
The Zero is the most fun to fly plane I have.

Liked the Formosa
Didn't like the Mustang.

My GWS Spitfire is still going strong, is one of my favorite flyers and is beautiful in the air. My GWS Corsair, which was a very nice plane, met it's fate when I lost orientation at dusk a year or so ago. The Corsair had an Eflite 480 for power and it was exciting at full throttle.

Allan

Cub (3)
Slow Stick (about 6 of them)
Funny Park
Mustang
Zero
Formosa (2)
Tiger Moth

I started flying GWS about 8 or 9 years ago. The only one I didn't really like was the mustang. It required quite a bit of speed to keep airborne, and the brushed motor with a ni-cad pack wasn't the overpowered stuff we are spoiled with now a days.

GWS electronics were the standard in budget gear for a few years, I have tons of receivers and servos that still work great.

If they were making 2.4 receivers and had the rest of their products as available as they once were, I would still be giving them most of my hobby budget.

That being said, I bought one of their yellow Slow Sticks about 3 weeks ago from the LHS.

Originally Posted by wolfewinde

...With the cheap Chinese electronics now, you can build a lot of these airplanes for under 100 bucks - pretty reasonable for a plane that is likely to fly very well.

And that's the main thing!

Perhaps some others will chime in here and we can see who is still flying these plane. I would also hope that some of the "Building Tricks" will be posted here that many of have learned over time.

Formosa tip: (h/t to NFZ) hollow out the cockpit area so that the battery can sit right on top of the wing. This gets around the problem of the too-small battery compartment and has other benefits as well -- it moves the CG lower (into the belly) and allows the battery to sit closer to the CG -- or wherever it wants to be.

If anyone's got clever, simple solutions for GWS landing gear fixes, I'd sure like to see them. LG is the Achilles heel of GWS planes.

I suppose GWS planes appeal to those who like a good deal (as in "value") and aren't intimidated by quirky builds. You need a little patience building these ARFs, and there will be moments when your best bet is to just walk away for a bit, have a brew and/or a smoke, and stew on it.

More tips: For the smaller GWS parkies (like Formosa and Texan,) HXT-500 servos work great. For the smaller Formosa: I prefer to carve servo pockets in the wings rather than use the stock torque-rod scheme. Mostly, I try to avoid torque-rod ailerons.

Originally Posted by rafe_b

I suppose GWS planes appeal to those who like a good deal (as in "value") and aren't intimidated by quirky builds. You need a little patience building these ARFs, and there will be moments when your best bet is to just walk away for a bit, have a brew and/or a smoke, and stew on it.

More tips: For the smaller GWS parkies (like Formosa and Texan,) HXT-500 servos work great. For the smaller Formosa: I prefer to carve servo pockets in the wings rather than use the stock torque-rod scheme. Mostly, I try to avoid torque-rod ailerons.

I'm willing to bet that I could complete one of those self jigging balsa kits before properly finishing a GWS ARF.

As far as the torque rods go. For the inexpensive materials they are made out of, they work quite well. When done properly there is very little slop in them Both my Formosas used single aileron servos and I was quite happy with the result.

Originally Posted by rafe_b

If anyone's got clever, simple solutions for GWS landing gear fixes, I'd sure like to see them. LG is the Achilles heel of GWS planes.

What exactly is breaking on them? I've never ripped out one of their black plastic molded LG mounts.

Timely thread Wolfe as I just finished up an me109 that was sitting around the garage. I like the ease of the build as the outline is pretty good. But it takes a bit to tidy up the planes to make them nicer.

Some of the things:

- filled in the panel lines with spackle. the originals are too wide. i paint em back on later
- me109 cockpit is not right. too big on the top and doesn't flow into the fuselage. i was lazy and didn't make a new one on this build.
- cockpit needs a pilot so pulled one from parkzone. pete's pilots on ebay has better spot on looking heads tho...
- gws torque rods are flimsy and weak. so are the foam ailerons that you cut away from the wing. make yer own and replace them.
- stock spinner is weak foam. i hacked up a 3" spinner and added some foam to make it more rounded like scale. i still didn't get it to look like the real which is much fuller, rounder and not pointy. but who makes a scale spinner in this size?
-my previous me109 liked to tip stall so i added wingtips and some washout.
- never painted an epo version but the older foam can easily develop pockmarks after sanding which need filling in with spackle before painting. wonder if epo is smoother?
- paint using airbrush with tamiya acrylics. i noticed they are harder to find in hobby stores. and getting more expensive! what gives? final coats are done with wbpu.
- markings are the stock gws
- seems like bad mojo to place swastikas so left them off and used other logo.
- power train is simple bp21, stick mount and some hobbycity servos.

what else or new is gws coming out with? let me check the ceo's thread.

happy flying

I love my old-school GWS Formosa. I bought it cheap a year ago, guess the hobby shop was getting rid of them!

I set it up as per the manual, but with a new lower floor in the cockpit to fit a 1500mah lipo. I'm using a 50 gram brushless spinning a 9x6 prop.

I really hated the aileron torque rods and the rudder/elevator pushrods. After a crash, I removed the cockpit floor to put the battery directly on the wing, put aileron servos in the wings, and two servos in the tail. Now the control surfaces are really tight, and she flies great.

She looks like hell though, the cowling has more tape than plastic, and the canopy blew off and has been replaced with a plastic sheet held on with magnets. I'm looking forward to getting one in the EPO version!

Fellas...just so you know,GWS planes are as popular as ever.Personally I have about 8-10 of 'em.My favs..the Corsair & AT-6.


...much discussion of anything GWS can be found here:

http://www.rcgroups.com/gws-grand-wing-servo-167/

Ahhh - some good build tips already. These builds can be a little quirky so I was hoping that folks would post some of the build tricks they have learned.

I don't think GWS is anywhere near as popular as they used to be. I hardly ever see one at the fields where I fly anymore.

Thanks for the links to the other threads.

Wolfe

I think this should be normally catered for in the Grand Wing Servo forum but I hate the way they have locked up the top of their forum with the (12) stickies and cheesy tag lines.
I think that they misjudged the market and put too much of their future plans on ducted fans rather than developing the existing models.
Don't get me wrong I still fly an (8) year old Slow stick and slightly younger Tigermoth 400 which I think are pretty good, but by now they should have all been updated for Li-Poly size battery packs and mounts for brushless motors.
Two more things that I would like are:
GWS props are very succesful but why not have them readily available in black or a wood colour instead of orange.
Attend a lot of the regional shows with product to sell.

Rob