12-25-99 Christmas Present
I've been looking at the Great Planes Giles 202 kit for a very long time.  It's a perfect match for my Saito .91 FS engine.  My family caught wind that I was looking at this kit and got it for me for Christmas.

1-21-00 Assembly begins
I didn't get started on the building of this kit right away.  But better late than never.

1-30-00 First flight
I completed building the kit today and flew it for the first time.  The flight was late in the afternoon (5:30pm).  The sun set at about 5:15pm, so it was basically dark.  Wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done, especially when the monocote is gray and black!  I just went up for two pattern passes and landed.  The landing was very smooth except for the very end with the wheels fell into some soft sand and it stood up on the nose.  No damage though.

2-5-00 First torque roll
Today I torque rolled for the first time.  I was just trying to hang it from the prop, but of course physics took over and it torque rolled 180 degrees.  When that happened I started to get a little confused and decided I better get the heck outa there. I pegged the throttle and it climbed out.  What a feeling!

2-8-00 Grounded
Today I purchased a Hirobo GPH346 Option, Belt Drive helicopter.  I'm going to have to borrow the PCM receiver from the Giles, so I guess it's grounded for a little while.

The replacement receiver is on back order from Rick's R/C in Texas.

3-8-00 Ordered
Today I ordered my Futaba 148 receiver from Tower Hobbies.  I originally had a back order with Rick's R/C, but he didn't get it in stock and Tower did.  Sorry Ron.  Rick's R/C is an awesome shop and I'm sure my next order will be placed there.

3-9-00 Receiver Arrived
My receiver arrived right on time.  I'll have the Giles in the air this weekend!

3-11-00 Flew it again
I flew the Giles today at the Davis field this morning.  One new trick I tried today is a knife edge snap.

4-23-00 Whoops, cracked it
I was slip'n it hard coming in for a landing.  I came out of the slip too fast and it rolled.  The left wing tip hit the ground and drove the nose in hard.  The damage really isn't that bad.  The wing has no damage at all.  The fuse is cracked a little on the wing bolt plate.  Also, the side of the fuse was damaged by the wing, but that's just Monocote.

06-23-00 Finally fixed it
Well, it's been two months, but I finally fixed the damage from the last "rough landing".  I just had to re-secure the wing bolt plate and repair some monocote.  The wing was completely un-damaged.  I'll be flying it tomorrow.

06-24-00 Airborne again
I blew the Giles for 1 tank today.  Everything seemed to go well.  I did a couple of barrel rolls, but that's about it.

06-25-00 Almost lost it
I flew the Giles at the new spot in town where some other guys are flying.  The clouds were dark gray and I lost focus on the Giles a couple of times.  Also, the throttle trim was set all the way down, the throttle kill switch was on and I couldn't get the idle down.  I had to land at a pretty good clip and just hope for the best.  It worked out OK and I landed smoothly.  I have a little more work to do on the Giles before I fly it again.  The low end mixture needs adjustment (have to take the cowl off) and the rudder is coming loose from the control horn.  I guess that's damage from the "rough landing" that I missed the first time around.

07-06-00 Tuned it
I tuned the engine in perfect tonight.  Turns out I had a glo plug going bad.  All I had was a #8, so I'm going to give it a try.  I'm planning on flying this coming Saturday and it looks like I'm ready to go.

03-25-01 Engine quit, bad tank pressure hose
I flew for the first time in a real long time.  I was up for about 5 minutes when the engine quit.  The dead stick landing went without incident.  I discovered that the tank pressure hose had cracked and fallen off the exhaust nipple.  I didn't have the tools to get the cowl off in the field, so the plane went home after just the 1 flight.

04-13-01 Repairs
I took the engine cowl off and found that the exhaust hose was in bad shape.  I replaced the hose.  I also mounted the receiver power switch on the exterior of the plane.  After my crash last Easter the switch has been installed inside the plane which means I had to remove the wing to turn on the power.

04-14-01 Good, Short Flight
Flew one tank today.  It was a short flight about 5 minutes long.  I did a couple low inverted passes and tried to hang it once.  On my take off I did an aileron roll right off the deck.  Fun stuff!  Elevator is giving me some problems when I pull hard.  I get a right aileron roll.  I decided to flyby the runway to see how the lineup is but the engine died on final.  Naturally it turned into an actual landing.

04-15-01 Engine died, rough landing
Before flight I removed the cowl and checked the needle valve settings.  I found that the low speed needle was set too lean.  I left the cowl off for a test flight.  I flew only 1 tank.  Immediately on take off I rolled it upside down and flew a few patterns inverted.  The engine seemed to be running great and left a noticeable smoke trail.  About half way into the flight I pulled into a nose vertical attitude and I was about to throw in the power and try to hang it.  The engine shot off and the plane went into a tail slide.  I didn't really see a problem with that because I thought I was plenty high.  After the plane went to vertical (nose down) I let it catch some speed.  Then I pulled back on the elevator to fly out and look for a landing sight.  Unfortunately my elevator problem manifested itself again and the plane rolled to the right.  I compensated and got the wings level.  But then I didn't have very much forward speed.  I was about 10 feet off the ground and I tried pulling back more elevator but I was already maxed out.  I hit the dual/rate switch to get some more elevator but it didn't help.  The plane landed wings level and a level attitude, but hard.  The landing gear and gear mount block broke away and the wing dislodged.  I have some damage, but the most of the fuse is fine, the wing is fine.  The firewall and engine are still solidly mounted so I feel the damage is minimal, although it looks bad.

04-16-01 Most of the repair work finished
I glued all of the pieces back together.  Damage wasn't quite as bad as I had thought.  After I glued the five pieces back to the fuse, it feels very solid.  I fashioned some braces behind the fractured areas and they seem to hold well.  The 1/4" plywood landing gear sub supports were broken in half so I created plywood sides and glued them to brace the fracture.  After I monocote the bottom of the fuse and install the landing gear for the final time, I'm going to fill in the braces with epoxy which should add plenty of support.  All of this work is very close to CG so I'm not too worried about balance after the repairs are done.

4-19-01 Repair work completed
Tonight I finished gluing in braces to support the fractures, epoxying the landing gear block and monocoting the outside.  Currently it looks better than it ever has in the past.  I had never monocoted the inside of the cockpit, but I went ahead and did so tonight.  I also relocated the battery indicator meter to the dashboard.  The only thing I really have left is painting the cowl.  I have never had paint on the cowl which is why it's white in the photos.  Next time I'm at the hobby store I'll pick up some gray paint to match the monocote.

6-23-01 Test Flight
Today I finally took the Giles for a test flight.  Everything seemed to go fine except it snaps to the right when I pull up on the elevator significantly.  This is a problem the Giles has always had, but it seems worse now.  I flew two flights.

6-30-01 CG off
Before I flew this morning I checked the CG.  It was off by 1/2" (tail heavy).  I moved the battery forward of the wing and that balanced the plane.  I also checked the lateral balance but it seemed fine.  I was hoping the aft balance was causing the elevator snap, but it's not.  I flew 1 flight today and it snapped hard when I applied moderate elevator.  I may have to add some weight the to left wing tip

02-23-05 CG off
Been a long time since I flew this plane.  I recently finished building my Dazzler and I hope to fly it this weekend.  While I'm out there I figured I'd bring the Giles too.  Today I started the engine.  It's idling really rough.  I think it's going to take some tuning to get it right.  I've got a new glow plug for it and I think I'll start there.  Today I also checked the CG and it's tail heavy again.  3.5oz of weight added to the nose.

02-26-05 Final Flight
Wasn't a particular exciting flight, but it was the final flight.  After starting the engine I was surprised that it didn't take much tuning to get the engine running nicely.  I took off, flew a couple patterns, then decided to check the snap rolling problem.  At a high altitude I pulled briskly on the elevator.  The plane pitched up as expected, then rolled over as feared.  I recovered easy enough and tried again.  Same result.  I continued to buzz around, playing inverted flight.  I flew by at about 12 feet off the ground, inverted, medium throttle.  After the plane passed me, and neared the end of the runway, then engine quit.  I nosed up and rolled over to right side up flight.  Since I was at the end of the runway I had to turn somewhere to set it down.  I chose left, unfortunately downwind.  At about 6 feet altitude I ran out of flight speed and the plane landed level, but very hard.  I probably could glue the plane back together, but with the snap roll problem, it's just not worth it.  I'd rather salvage the equipment from it and build something new.  Only equipment breakage is where the muffler threads into the cylinder head.  This area was already damaged from the CAP232 crash years ago.  I'll see if I can find a new cylinder head for the engine and it'll be ready for the next plane (after some engine tuning)