FT Guinea Pig on Grass

[Dylanbbaum12]

Has anyone flown the FT Guinea Pig on grass? Was wondering how it handled on grass before I ordered it.

 

[joelspangler]

I originally built my full-sized guinea pig with gear as in the plans, minus the wheel pants. I had trouble with the plane wanting to tip over sideways and wing strike with that setup (the gear wasn't wide enough for the wingspan). I'm not entirely sure if that was because I added about an extra foot to the wingspan since I completely scratch built it, and the foam I used was longer than the dollar tree stuff. In any case, to solve, I used pretty thick wire to bend and solder wider gear, much like many old balsa planes used. I'll try to take a picture my final setup for you. With the wider gear (which also raised up the back end), I also was able to use a larger wheel in the front which also helped on the grass.

 

[Foamforce]

I’ve had pretty good luck with mine. The differential thrust turns it very well on grass. It generally stays upright although I can tip it over easily if I try to turn too quickly.

It’s probably the easiest to handle on the grass of any of my FliteTest planes.

 

[joelspangler]

Here's some pictures of my guinea pig. Nose wheel is 2.75 inch. Main gear wheels are a little over 4 inches. I'm not positive where I got the wire, but I'm pretty sure it's 1/8th inch. It measures about 3.6mm according to my calipers. It's bent, wound with thin copper, and soldered in place using a plumber's torch.

The nose wheel takes quite the beating on grass, so make sure you use plenty of wood to re-enforce it. I ripped my first attempt at nose gear out of the plane on one of my first landings, so I had to make the boards keeping the weel attached bigger and I used a better glue to attach (gorilla glue instead of hot glue).

 

[Dylanbbaum12]

Here's some pictures of my guinea pig. Nose wheel is 2.75 inch. Main gear wheels are a little over 4 inches. I'm not positive where I got the wire, but I'm pretty sure it's 1/8th inch. It measures about 3.6mm according to my calipers. It's bent, wound with thin copper, and soldered in place using a plumber's torch.

The nose wheel takes quite the beating on grass, so make sure you use plenty of wood to re-enforce it. I ripped my first attempt at nose gear out of the plane on one of my first landings, so I had to make the boards keeping the weel attached bigger and I used a better glue to attach (gorilla glue instead of hot glue).

That looks really good!