[Tired Old Man]

I got lucky and was able to obtain one of the four W/H 40% Giles pre-production kits. The production planes will have some differences, like completed hinges, that will make the assembly much faster for the buyers but overall the pre-production and the production planes will be the same but with different colors.

I have one of the original 35% W/H G-202's and it's hard to believe how much larger the 40% version is. What's nice is even though it's 40% scale it should still fit in a full standard bed pick up. The length, rudder tip to front of cowl, is 92-1/2", making for generally easy transportation. Add the length of the prop and spinner of your choice and you have the finished length of the plane.

The fuselage has servo pockets at the tail that can be used to tail mount rudder servo(s) for those that use a heavier engine. The plane has been flown with both a DA 100 and a DA 85 and due to the lighter weight of the 85 it performs just as well as it does with the DA 100. You don't need a 150cc engine for this 40% kit, keeping the assembly budget down.

Wing tubes are carbon, both front and rear, as stock items. The hardware depicted here are the basic items that come with every kit. W/H has an optional hardware kit that provides just about everything else one would need to complete the kit. Gas tank, wheels and axles, fuel line, linkages, etc.

I've been told that it performs hard rudder maneuvers with only one rudder servo so I'm planning on tail mounting a single Hitec 5955 to see how it works out. There will be a hole left over for another if it's needed. I'll be using a Brison 6.4 (105cc) that's not mounted in anything at the moment. Weight wise it should be pretty good since it falls between the DA 85 and the DA 100, but closer to the 100 of course.

The initial impression of fit and quality are good. The cowl and hatch fit was very good. The fuselage has a pipe tunnel that you can see in the pictures. The cowl is quite wide with roughly 12-1/8" between the sides of the cowl to fit an engine. That should be plenty of room for most 100cc engines. I'll measure a 3w 106, BME 115, and the Brison and post the numbers to show how different engines should fit.

In the meantime, here's some pictures of what the pre-production plane looks like insde and out. The colors of the production planes will be different from this one and all the hinges on the production planes will be the pocket style that W/H started to use on his large planes some time back. That completes the hinging process before the plane gets to your door. What a deal! As the assembly pics come along you'll note that I'm hinging this one. The reason is that the four pre production planes were not pocket hinged to keep the cost down. All the production planes have the hinging completed at the factory.

I'll post more as the assembly progresses.