Needing help with slow stick
 

I got my new slow stick togather and took it out for it's first flight and crashed right after getting about 4 foot off the ground it went vertical & I stalled it and hit the ground. I added weight to the nose and went up for a second time the nose still wanted to pitch up a little bit. Heres where I need the help the plane kept going in right circles while giving left rudder when I backed off the throttle to glide and see if I could land without damage left rudder input worked some but not like it should. I'm running a gws 900kv bl motor, e-flite servos, orange rx 6ch. & Dx6i TX. Winds were at 2mph or less. The plane still seems a little tail heavy. My wing, esc, battery 2cell 900mah, & receiver is as far forward as they can go. The rudder is working when I give it left or right rudder inputs.

Give the motor 3 to 5 degrees of Down thrust, move the wing back a little, and set the CG at 25% of the wing cord, make sure that you have full throw on the rudder, use a larger battery if needed to get the CG set, Hope that helps, Chellie

here is my Scratch built SS

Thanks Chellie for the help but now I'am going to need more help I don't know how I could change the motor to get the down thrust. The motor mounts to the stick mount from the front the shaft feeds thru the mount & the screws go thru the front of the mount & into the motor it's an outrunner but it doesn't mount from the backside. this was an included motor in the gws kit from heads up rc.

Scratch building is skill & talent I wished I had. I can't get a kit in the air The Lord only knows what would happen if I tried building a plane from scratch. I did see a video on you tube a man built a plane out of a 2x4 or 1x2 with a weed eater motor it looked like a gaint SS.

You can Do Anything you Put your Mind to :D you have got to be stubborn and be willing to make mistakes, I have learned from my mistakes ;) I make mistakes all the time and have to go back and correct them, scratch building is makeing lots of mistakes and learning from them ;-)

sometimes you can put washers between the motor and the motor mount on the top side of the motor, post a motor pic and we will both figure it out :D

Will do I was thinking if the screws are long enough I could put washers between the motor and the mount on the bottom 2 screws and that will give it some down thrust. I will get a pic and post it. I do have to get a new prop rookie mistake it has a long threaded shaft and I put a prop saver on it but didn't cut the shaft off so on the landing the prop hit the ground & broke. That was the 1 thing I had on my list to get today while at the hobby shop and forgot. I think I'll just order them from heads up since I can only get to the hobby shop on saturdays and it's about a 45min. drive one way and 10 to 3 is the hours plus the owner doesn't seem to thrilled to help with ? about a plane I didn't buy from his store even if I'm buying parts from him for the build. A little time will tell and I rather support a local hobby shop if I can by buying from them to many have closed down already. I used to race rc cars but all the places closed so my cars are dust collectors.

slow stick motor mount
 

Heres the pics.

One problem with the slow stick, is how easy it is to torque steer with throttle. It also pitches up with any type of speed, due to high lift and the incidence in the wings.

On my dads latest slow stick, if you turn it too sharply, it will get locked into a loop. Elevator and rudder don't seem to effect the way it handles. We didn't set the dihedral to anything, and it came out very flat after a couple of hard outside loops. I think this effects the rudder input.

Where does the plane balance out now? Also, which motor is that, just out of curiosity? Looks like the hurp 400 or 450 motor. Might also want to put the motor mount so the motor is on top, to give ya a bit more prop clearance.

Thanks for the info. The motor is the gws 2215\12T brushless 900kv. It might just be my flying skills. I thought after flying my cub the SS would be easy & laid back and enjoy. My SS seemed to do what you were saying just going in a right circle and just locked. sideway loops who knows. If the weather stays good I'll give it another try. I went back over the plane and from the le of the wing I read 4 1\8 so thats where I'm starting & I have 1\2 oz. weight and it looks balanced.

Yea, if you can put a few washers on the motor to shim it down, that will help alot, Down thrust loads the main wing and helps to make a plane very stable in flight, a brushless in a SS is a lot of power, so dont use full power when taking off, kind of ease the power, 25% of the main wings cord is a good starting place for the CG, its best to be nose heavy than tail heavy for a maiden, 1/4 way back from the leading edge of the wing is where i would start at, most instructions are wrong on a planes CG, and causes a lot of problems, thats why i say start at a 25% of the wings cord, Keep a lot of Props Handy :) I order them from heads up rc when i start to run low on them :D check the wing for twisting, and brace with fiberglass strapping tape if needed, hope that helps, Chellie

Here is a little more info on braceing the wing,

http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/show...=Slow+stick+ap


The Wing
After both wing braces are complete, its time to install them on the wing. I use some good fiber reinforced strapping tape. The braces were glued in with 5 min. epoxy and taped as the pictures show. This will add some weight but the advantage of strength is whats needed.

Click on the pics to see any notes.

The last pic is the brand of strapping tape used.

Dave



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Well with how the motor mounts it can't be shimmed. By the instructions the motor shaft can be mounted on either side of the motor so I tried to swap it but I can't get the shaft to pull out. If I could it would let me mount the motor to the front of the stick mount and it could be shimmed. I need to get a couple of 3cell lipos 1800 mah and that will help with the cg as well. Have you order from the Hobby King USA & if so was the shipping time better. Thanks again for all your help. I don't know If I said but I have my mini titan sold so that will give me around 200.00 or a little more for another plane a bnf will work I only have 3 aircraft bind to my DX6i.

slide the motor and mount off the fuselage, get a piece of 3/8" x 3/8" basswood about 4" long and epoxy that under the fuselage at a 5 degree angle, sand the fuselage, sand a angle on the basswood,about 3 inches of the wood, wrap the basswood to the fuselage with cotton string and epoxy in place, leave the wood motor mount sticking out about 1" in front of the fuselage, Order your batteries from the USA HK warehouse and they will get to you quicker, Hope that helps, Chellie

Improvise, Adapt, Overcome :D :D :D

I got the motor shaft out and installed on the can side of the motor. Now the motor is mounted to the front of the motor mount. That will also help with the cg with the motor being more forward. I also had my motor mounted under the fuse hayostacks I looked at pics and vids and most motors are above the fuse so I changed mine I don't know if that has any thing to do with how it flies. I hope to try saturday if it's not raining or windy Iread the weather report 5mph winds but that could change.

Thank you all who has helped me with advice on my slow stick. I made my 3rd attempt at flying the plane today and it was a thing of beauty to see the plane in the air. I was flying on my 2s 900mah 25c and still had good flight time when I got home my batteries were in the mail from Hobby King USA. It's been a great rc plane day. The nose still wanted to tip up and landings were hard by the weather it's supposed to be 8mph winds I almost landed with the wind the plane wanted to stay in the air.

With the bigger batteries, your plan will be more nose heavy, but hey, we all gotta start somewhere.

Good to hear about the sucessful flight, hope you have many more.

I'm going to remove the weights I have stuck on the front now. I'll get more flight time with them tooo!!

You will also have a lot more thrust on 3 cells. Remember that the plane will pitch up with airspeed. So when you use the bigger batteries, you will have a lot more power. The plane will torque steer easier, and will pitch up a lot more.

Nothing wrong with a lot of power, just remember you can always throttle back. The way I like to setup my slow stick, I have maybe 1/4" throw upwards on elevator, and about 3 times as much down.

Glad you got it flying :ws: Take care and have fun, Chellie

I got in some good flight time today but the slow stick still has right wing tilting down and I'am still feeding it left rudder to compensate. The plane is balanced I checked it by using a string on the center line of the fuse and lifting the plane there is no wing tipping it is level. I'm starting to think it's thrust from the motor. I need to get it up pretty high and cut the throttle and see if it will glide level

Trim it in in a gliding situation. If you need some trim on the rudder, put some into it. If it gets worse with speed, then its your main wing. In a slow taxi into the wind, if it drifts at all, try to slide the main wing over a bit.