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The Easy Sport 60 from Great Planes is touted to be a 1990's update of the classic 'ugly stik.' It takes relatively little time and effort to build and is suitable for anyone who's mastered a trainer. It performs as well as the 'ugly stik' clones and there's nothing 'ugly' about it. During construction, the Easy Sport 60 is far less impressive than it's smaller brother. This plane is almost an exact part by part blowup of the 40 sized version. The same instruction manual is used for both with differences noted and detailed. It seems that Great Planes rushed the release of this kit in order to try to live up to the ad campaign to make it the "Stick" of the 90's. During wing construction, the manual says to locate the "five 3/32x3x24 balsa sheets" and cut them into 10 pieces 10 7/8" long. The parts list indicates that there are three of these sheets and that is the number contained in the kit. A call to Great Planes resulted in their sending two more sheets. One of the pieces of aileron stock was warped in such a way as to make it unusable. Returning the part to Great Planes for replacement was not feasible. Great Planes should have been willing to replace it without the expense of returning the warped piece. If it had been another piece of the structure it would have been different but an aileron has to be straight with no bracing. The ailerons pieces were pinned together and sanded to eliminate the warp. The wing center section needs some minor redesign but there are no insurmountable problems. When the wing structure was completed, there were serious doubts about using the planned Supertigre .90 with this model. Before it was covered, it was very flexible. It seem that the covering would make a significant difference in the strength and flexibility. Basswood is used for the main and forward spars but leading edge sheeting should have been used also. The leading edge is only 3/4" high x 1/2" wide. The blocks on the front of the wingtips have the grain running the wrong direction. These were split and glued one behind the other to make them useable. The wing center section sheeting does not mate well with the spars. The spars protrude well above the sheeting and need to be sanded a good bit in order for the parts to fit properly. On page 22, the instructions give the location for drilling the wing bolt plate. If drilled as instructed, the hole in the wing mounting block in the fuselage comes right to the edge and possibly through the inside edge of the mounting block,. The holes need to be closer to the outside edges of the wing bolt plate. The vertical fin/elevator/wing alignment was done without any problems. The aileron gaps were sealed by covering the wing with the ailerons installed and covering wing and ailerons at the same time and creasing the monocote into the gap between. This was easier than expected. Aileron servo were installed in each wing at about mid-wing mounted to 1/16" plywood hatches between the ribs. With the structure complete, a new Supertigre .90 was installed with a Great Planes 14 oz. tank and an Easy Fueler mounted in the forward part of the top hatch in front of the firewall. A small pocket was ground in the top of firewall for the fueler to fit but it works well. A couple of ounces of weight were added to the tail to get it to balance at the forward C.G. location. It was taped under the stabilizer as a temporary measure. Some flying will be required to determine how much must added for proper handling. Problems in getting the engine to run properly restricted inital flights but the maiden flight of about 4 minutes was accomplished. The Easy Sport tracked well and took off smoothly. As expected, it has unlimited vertical. It handles a lot like the Easy Sport .40 but bigger, smoother and more powerful. It needs very littler elevator to maintain inverted level flight. Stalls are gentle and straight forward. Even with the construction problems, this is going to be a plane to be enjoyed. |
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