• Wing Span: 59.3 in (151 cm)
• Wing Area: 617 sq in (3981 cm²)
• Length: 55.4 in (141 cm)
• Weight: 6.8 lbs (3.1 kg)
• Engine: .46 - .61 2 - cycle
  (7.5 - 10.0cc 2 - cycle)
  .70 - .91 4 - cycle
  (11.5 - 15.0 cc 4 - cycle)
• 5 Servos required

The Giles comes neatly packaged with the wood separated by sub-assembly. Rolled plans are included along with a detailed instruction manual. The kit comes with ABS cowl and wheel pants, aluminum gear, a large canopy, and all the hardware. The quality of the wood and hardware was good. Overall, the first impression was favorable.

With the help of the excellent instruction manual, construction was straightforward and proceeded quickly. The wood parts are die cut, fit together well, and did not require a lot of sanding. The tail feathers are stick frames sheeted with balsa. The wing uses a unique method of interlocking webs and ribs to help build a straight wing, and it is the wing that could cause some confusion if anything. The ailerons are built as part of the wing and then later sawed off and sheeted. Leading and trailing edges are sheeted, as is the center section. The wing is attached to the fuselage with two wooden dowels and two 1/4" nylon bolts. The fuselage and belly pan have many lightening holes in the plywood frame to minimize weight. The belly pan, reinforced landing gear mount, and removable fuel tank tray are particularly well designed. The front and rear turtle decks are balsa sheeting over stringers and formers, with no carving or excessive sanding required. The rear turtle deck was a little tricky and took some time to get it right. A split elevator is used, with two steel pushrods connected close to the servo. Unlike some other split elevator setups, this method was easy and worked well. Only three modifications were made to the stock kit; the wing center section was fiberglassed, the firewall was further reinforced, and a Sullivan tailwheel bracket was used.

A Futaba receiver and S148 servos were used, along with a Super Tigre G-90, 14x6 APC, and JTEC Pitts style muffler. Although a .46 engine can be used, this plane is large for a .40 size and its aerobatic abilities would be limited. The cowl is large and fitting the ST90 inside was not a problem. Balancing proved to be somewhat difficult, as this model routinely comes out nose heavy. The battery and receiver were mounted a few inches back in the turtle deck, and are only easily accessable with the canopy removed. The rudder servo can be installed either in the normal servo bay area or in the tail. The tail location was chosen to aid balance. No additional weight was required to hit the recommended CG location. Control throws were set according to the instructions. A pushrod guide tube is provided for routing the receiver antenna inside the fuse. Three rolls of monokote were used in covering.

The weather was calm on the day of the maiden flight. The only real surprise came in taxiing, which was difficult with 2 1/2" wheels on the grass runway. The Giles nosed over easily even with full up elevator. Later, 3 1/2" wheels were substituted and a 1/8" plywood rail was inserted on the rear edge of the landing gear to increase the rake, which helped greatly. The Giles lifted off quickly under full power and was flying straight and level after minor trim changes. The recommended CG and throws are a good starting point, with the exception of low rate aileron, which was too sluggish. Early versions of this kit had excessive elevator throws listed but this has since been corrected. On low rates the plane is precise and fairly docile. The Giles breezes through basic aerobatics like four point rolls, snaps, cubans, inverted flight, etc. Rolls are axial, but more so to the right than left, possibly due to engine torque or a nagging trim problem. Stalls are gentle but tend to drop the left wing. The rudder is very effective and the Giles will climb in knife edge. There is a fair amount of pitching to belly in knife edge, which was eliminated with mixing. A few percent of rudder to aileron mixing was also added. On high rates, the Giles does great tumbles and beautiful flat spins. With the ST90, vertical is adequate for hovering, but barely. Landings are fairly slow and predictable, and dead sticks are not too alarming. After about 20 flights, the ABS cowl has held up well, but the wheel pants had already cracked. The recommended mounting method of the wheel pants is poor. The pants were replaced with heavy plastic ones from a Sig kit, and screws with blind nuts were used to hold them in place.

Overall, this is an excellent plane and a good value. The kit is well designed, easy to build, and fun to fly. On the down side are flimsy ABS wheel pants, slightly weak aluminum main gear, and poor ground handling. I would still recommend this kit to anyone looking for a capable aerobatic airplane.