EAM's SE5a and Fokker

[check yer 6]

Has anyone had a chance to fly EAM's SE5a or Fokker D-VII? Can it be compared to GWS' Tigermoth?

[pease1]

I bought and built the Se5a, I was afraid to fly it when I completed it, but now that I have several faster planes I should be able to try it out and let you know. I just have to free up some servos and a receiver. Need to crash one of my guided mites I guess :-) Time to do some really high wind flight tests :-)

Al

[Sr71fan]

I flew Sparky's (the designer) SE-5a a little before the SWAC, and Jason Nowell's GWS Tiger Moth a couple of weeks ago. They both fly EXTREMELY well. The SE-5a seems to be a bit slower, but that may just be an illusion because of its larger size. I highly recommend both planes. Yes, I have since purchased both. 8-)

Gary

[Jason Nowell]

I can tell you this, I bought one of EAM's SE-5's the day I saw it fly. I agree with Gary, it probably is slightly slower than the GWS Tiger Moth. I also love my Moth though, it will slow down very nicely, but also has a little zip to it if you want it. I still haven't finished building my SE-5 and have never flown one, but i've seen it in flight many times.

In short, both are superb flying machines. Anyone would have a hard time recommending one over the other.

[check yer 6]

Thanks for the info Gary and Jason. I may end up getting the Fokker. Germans had the best paint jobs, and painting a moth red with a lozenge pattern on the wings just wouldn't look right!

[pease1]

Well I flew my EAM Se5a today. BLETCH! What a total piece of dog waste. I would not reccomend this plane to my enemies, let alone my friends.

With the GWS-A and 10x4.7 prop this plane is hideously underpowered. Flights were always on the verge of a stall. Forget about anything other than working your butt off just to keep the thing in the air. On stall it drops a wingtip badly.

It would probably fly better with the new S1 or S2 powerplant and an 11x4.7 but I'm not sure even that would be enough. The airframe's not sturdy enough to handle anythng larger (like a 280). Unless you have an indoor place to fly FORGET about this plane - it will NOT handle ANY wind.

With all the drag the plane flies so slow that the torque from the prop really effects the plane, with max trim I still couldn't get good level flight with hands off. Also I tried several adjustments to the CG, but the plane still seemed twitchy, even when grosly noseheavy. I checked and I did build it straight and true.

Mine stalled close to the ground and on touchdown one of the bottom wingtips disintegrated. So much for $49

I'm so glad I gave it a test flight before spending the 4 hours to paint it.

I hope your experience is better than mine - I'm sorely dissapointed.

The only good thing to say about this plane is it does fly very slow - if you can call what it does flying.

Al

[Jason Nowell]

Allan,

How do you REALLY feel!

That's funny because I've seen about 10 of these things fly and all of them fly great. I've also seen 3 or 4 with 280's in them no problem. The one I flew was SLOW, but not under-powered, it wasn't designed to be a rocket.

Also on the S1 and S2 motors, they are geared so low that an 11x4.7 would burn it up for sure! Those motors are built for high RPM on a 7x6 or 8x6 GWS prop.

Not to be a jerk, but one should always weigh ALL opinions of an aircraft before making a decision. I could get 10 thumbs up and NO thumbs down in my part of the world. Maybe you got a bad kit or something. I must seriously disagree that this plane is "dog waste", I've seen too many of them flying wonderfully to fall for that one.

[ 07-30-2001: Message edited by: Jason Nowell ]

[pease1]

Huh - I thought the S1 & S2 were geared lower not higher - brain fart I guess. Maybe the GWS-C or D with the 11" then. Yeah that's what I meant.

Jason, I value your oppinion. When you say you've seen 10 fly, is that 10 different planes? I'd really like to see one with a 280 in it, It sure would suprise me after the experience I had.

All in all, if someone's debating between the EAM Fokker/Se5a and the Tiger Moth, my vote is GWS all the way. I;ve yet to be dissapointed (in fact anything less than thrilled) with any GWS product.

My previous post may have a touch of acid in it because I posted it soon after finding out the kit I spent hours and $$$ on wasn't any good. Anyways, the net is too full of shiny-happy reviews of sub-standard product. Now my 2 cents are here, along with yours. Caveat Emptor I guess!

Possibly I'm just not skilled enough of a modeler to properly build the EAM kit. Who knows.....

[Jason Nowell]

Allan,

I've posted comments shortly after a "sub-standard" test flight myself. :) At this point, if I was forced to choose, I too would go with the Moth, but I haven't finished my SE-5 yet and have only flown one once.

The ones I was referring to are 10 different airplanes, all flew well, but all were flown indoors also. I have yet to see one fly outdoors. I know the Moth handles wind very well, in fact I have landed mine smoothly with negative ground speed....nothing like seeing your plane roll BACKWARDS at touchdown :) The winds were probably averaging 10 to 12 mph that morning. The Moth does have more "get up and go" than the SE-5 (even with a 280 in it).

After seeing some of your other projects, I doubt that building skill is the problem. It may just not do well outdoors....when I finish mine, I'll try it and post more comments here.

[pease1]

Wind wasn't the problem - it was a rare dead calm evening right about sunset, temperature 72 degrees. The plane just didn't seem to want to fly. I hope you have better luck with yours. Let me know. I'd like to know if it was 'just me' or not. I'm guessing this kit takes a lot more building skill than the average kit. Mine flew like a brick and I hadn't even loaded it down with paint yet.

[check yer 6]

Well with all being said, I think i changed my mind. The fact that the moth might handles wing better will sway my opinion, but I will wait for Jason's re-veiw. Thankfuly, not ALL re-veiws are shiny happy.

Thanks again for all your input.

[check yer 6]

Well with all being said, I think i changed my mind. The fact that the moth might handle wind better will sway my opinion, but I will wait for Jason's re-veiw. Thankfuly, not ALL re-veiws are shiny happy.

Thanks again for all your input.

[flyingbuddy]

Jason,
Your email is down. James tried and I followed up with no success. See "Reader Comments"
James is: oside_james@yahoo.com

[Jason Nowell]

James / John

I have corrected my user profile to reflect my correct email address. Sorry for the confusion, my web server has been acting up lately so I just changed my email address to nowell@skylinepropertiesinc.com for now.

Send your addresses!

Jason

[ 08-01-2001: Message edited by: Jason Nowell ]

[oside_james]

thanks to all who have sent info! and as for you, jason, you have emial! once again, thanks a lot to everyone who helped with the email mix-ups!


james