I haven't built a Guillows kit for a while, and I've got kit 601 the cessna 180 in my cupboard.
Now these 600 kits are good for rubber flight in my opinion, I built the Piper Cub and it flew great, also Scigs Built the 180 and it was absolutely smashing.
They are good for the following reasons:
1) The prop although smallish for the span, is big enough for 30s or so flights (in most Guillows kits the prop is far too small).
2) The die cut wood is 1/20" (rather than the more normal 1/16"so even if it is on the dense side the weight is not too much for it to fly
3) Relatively Easy to construct
4) Everything is in the kit that you need (apart from Glue dope and decent rubber - see bad things!)
5) The basic design is sound
6) They are extraordinarily good value for money
They are bad because:
1) The rubber is rubbish, it wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.
2) The die cutting is a bit suspect and you have to repair some of the parts (mainly the wing ribs)
3) The tissue colours are boring (the box art shows nice yellow and blue and you get white and grey.
Now to get a flyer (ie not too worried about good looks) the only the rubber is the issue. So for me this is the ideal kit as a primer, a motivator if you will.
Having hung around this forum for a while I noticed that so many folks get disheartened when their birds won't fly, then they don't carry on with the hobby. Sometimes I think that it is because they go for the low winged warbirds, which are not ideal to start with. The 180 is a nice stable high winger.
So Here is the idea: Any one who is interested goes out and buys a 180 form your LHS. Then we all build it at the same time. For the experienced builders we can show off our different methods advnantages/disadvantages, and the less experienced guys follow along, ask questions and spark some debate.
Is there any interest?
I would suggest the following simple rule:
Only the bits in the kit to be used aside from say printer paper, glue and dope. PLUS some decent rubber.
That would be it!
I will use Banana oil to seal on mine, perhaps Scigs or ADW (if they join in) would use something more available in the U.S. or perhaps one of the alternative sealers. (I'm from England you see)
I think if we can get this off the ground (excuse the pun) it would act as a super reference for newbies, we'd all have fun building and chewing the fat (yaking!) and you never know we could have something that Mark could use for publicity purposes to get more folks into this fine but now negelcted hobby of ours.
I dunno what do others think? is it impossible? is there sufficient interest?
Let me know what you all think...
Kind Regards to you all.
Andrew