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- Jan 22, 2009
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Yesterday my friend goaded me into taking his Giles 202 up. He knew I'd never flown an aerobatic monoplane before and was trying to turn me. 
Made a quick 15 minute flight, spent a few minutes trying to get a feel for it, then tried the '15 Advanced Known. Got about half way through and chickened out on the push down outside loop. Need to play with some things at altitude first. All that made it out of the camera was the very first few minutes I spent throwing it around. Few clips here. It's sloppy and nothing fancy. It feels WAY different from the Pitts. Full deflection roll rate is silly, and would take some practice to utilize while stopping clean. But there is really no need for 400 deg/sec. competing through Advanced. But flying a Giles in Unlimited, sometimes you'll need all you can get going vertical. My impression was that it took the same amount of force to return the ailerons to neutral from full deflection as it took to initially deflect them. Weird for this Pitts pilot.
Hit 9G on the first pull to vertical without meaning to. Pitch is very light and tiny stick movements really pile on the G. Totally different feel from the Pitts and other airplanes with traditional stick force/feel. 9G felt about like 6G in the Pitts.
I did not figure out how to snap it from level flight on the few attempts I made. My Pitts snap inputs do not work in the Giles. I think I was pulling too hard and stalling the whole airplane. Could feel a buffet through the rudder pedals and it just slowly wallowed around. Got a decent 3/4 vertical down snap during the pass at the Known, but you can pull the stick more on vertical snaps since they're started at zero AOA. It's pretty cool how much vertical rolling you can get done compared to the Pitts. No need to rush vertical points like in the Pitts.
Oh, and the thing is like a tricycle gear airplane on the ground it's so easy to handle after touchdown. But it's so light and pitch sensitive you really need to force your hand to stay still and let it settle onto the ground or it's very easy to get into PIO. I'm still a hardcore bipe buy, but I have a confession - I want to fly it again.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhxTYdiQp2o"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhxTYdiQp2o[/ame]
Made a quick 15 minute flight, spent a few minutes trying to get a feel for it, then tried the '15 Advanced Known. Got about half way through and chickened out on the push down outside loop. Need to play with some things at altitude first. All that made it out of the camera was the very first few minutes I spent throwing it around. Few clips here. It's sloppy and nothing fancy. It feels WAY different from the Pitts. Full deflection roll rate is silly, and would take some practice to utilize while stopping clean. But there is really no need for 400 deg/sec. competing through Advanced. But flying a Giles in Unlimited, sometimes you'll need all you can get going vertical. My impression was that it took the same amount of force to return the ailerons to neutral from full deflection as it took to initially deflect them. Weird for this Pitts pilot.Hit 9G on the first pull to vertical without meaning to. Pitch is very light and tiny stick movements really pile on the G. Totally different feel from the Pitts and other airplanes with traditional stick force/feel. 9G felt about like 6G in the Pitts.
I did not figure out how to snap it from level flight on the few attempts I made. My Pitts snap inputs do not work in the Giles. I think I was pulling too hard and stalling the whole airplane. Could feel a buffet through the rudder pedals and it just slowly wallowed around. Got a decent 3/4 vertical down snap during the pass at the Known, but you can pull the stick more on vertical snaps since they're started at zero AOA. It's pretty cool how much vertical rolling you can get done compared to the Pitts. No need to rush vertical points like in the Pitts.
Oh, and the thing is like a tricycle gear airplane on the ground it's so easy to handle after touchdown.
But it's so light and pitch sensitive you really need to force your hand to stay still and let it settle onto the ground or it's very easy to get into PIO. I'm still a hardcore bipe buy, but I have a confession - I want to fly it again.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhxTYdiQp2o"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhxTYdiQp2o[/ame]
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