Model: Great Planes Spirit Elite
Type: Full-House 2m Thermal Duration
Status: Uncertain...being borrowed right now.
Weight: 35 oz
Controls: R/E/A/F
Wing Span: 78.5"
Wing Area:645 " sq
Airfoil: S7035 root to S7036 tip
Wing Loading: 7.81 oz/sq.ft

I have to start out by saying that this was a fun airplane to fool around with! I've made quite a few changes to my Spirit, so I'll focus more on those. I wasn't all that impressed with the original design for the fuselage and empennage, since the wood in my kit was heavy and the deisgn is fairly weak around the wing saddle and tail. I've built a few Great Planes kits, and I was disappointed in this one. But as they say, if you don't like it, do something about it! So here's the scoop.

Before I began, I junked the lousy plastic pushrod shrouds that came with the kit, and replaced them with metal Sullivan cables. I don't like plastic pushrods simply because they expand and contract with temperature, and I hate fighting with "creeping trim". The rudder linkage, as it comes stock has too much unsupported length for my liking, so I chopped the whole mess off and added the v-tail. I have to admit, it took a bit of tuning, but it flies even better than it did before! The halves are balsa shells with carbon leading and trailing edges, and are feathered to the thickness of a carbon laminate. I think they look pretty good too.

I built the wing as a one piece arrangment, and reinforced the spars with carbon laminate. I then wrapped the center section with graphite tape, and now it's plenty strong-enough. I tried adding Robertson Trilerons to the wing too, and was pleasantly surprised by the results.

The main weakness of this kit is the fuselage, however, and mine keeps breaking on me. After the last split (it wasn't a bad landing either), I put the whole thing on hold. Maybe I'll get back to it someday.

Nice looking airplane, decently flying too, but I've been lured away by the banshee wail of the composite ships!

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