blueapplepaste

Maybe it's my old nitro habits, but I just wouldn't feel comfortable just taping the wings together; I epoxied mine. Even glued together it's plenty small enough to just toss in the back seat.

And yes, the ailerons were to toughest part for me! For whatever reason they were a pain to cut out. I did a bit of sanding to even them out.

Twmaster

Yup I glued mine too. I was thinking the same thing about the size of the thing so glue it is.

I am sitting here choking in the epoxy fumes writing this as the glue sets.

I do expect to finish this tonight. Pics later. It ain't gonna be purdy!

Twmaster

Well mine should fly tomorrow if the weather cooperates. All I have left to do is install the control horns and linkage to the aileron servos, program the radio and charge the main battery.

I'm just waiting for glue to dry right now.

One point I'd like to make here.

DO NOT USE CA ON THE AILERON HINGES.

I fought with it and finally got it to stick. They suggest epoxy in the manual I'd use that or Titebond if I assemble another one.

Twmaster

Ok, it's done. Well except for some decorations. I'll take some photos while at the flying field and post my report then.

I should also add that mine came in at 21.5 ounces with a 3S 1700mA Vampower battery, SK400XT motor, generic Chinese ESC, 4 micro servos and tons of tape as covering.



Announcer: Say, is that a crash helmet?
Me: I hope not.

blueapplepaste

Eh, didn't get a chance to maiden mine this weekend. The wind was brutal all weekend long; and I just didn't feel comfortable maidening a plane this small and light in gusty winds.

Twmaster

(OK, smokejohnson, you wanted a flight report. Now you have it!!)

Took me long enough to get this assembled. So here is my flight report:

It flies!

Got it to the field, took a couple photos. It was getting dark and windy by the time I was ready to fly her. Checked the power and it was pulling 8.6A for 77W with the SK400XT, Vampower 3S 1700 and APC 9x4.7SF prop.

Take off roll was short at about 8 feet and climb out was uneventful. Once I got altitude things went a bit goofy.

It was trying hard to turn left on me and since I was concentrating on flying the plane my fingers could not find the darned trim buttons! (only second time flying my new DX7 TX) Anyhow, after slowing it down and working the sticks I found it was tail heavy and needed loads of down elevator and right trim on the ailerons. Since I now had this more-or-less under control I did a few circuits around the field and a loop. Loops from level flight are tight and easy, rolls however are ugly! Power off landing was slow and easy enough with just a few nudges on the stick to keep it going where I wanted.

The landing gear are simply awful. Bent like a noodle on landing. I will be replacing that.

I should add that it does not like 3S battery packs. They don't fit well in the provided space at all. I may try it on a 2S pack and a bigger prop as it seems like this will fly on a low wattage setup with ease if kept to 20 or 21 ounces.

It got too windy for me to try adding some weight to the nose for a second flight so that was it for today. I think it would be a good second plane or aileron trainer after some rudder elevator experience.

More after I fly it again.

To be continued.

smokejohnson

Thanks Mike, I broke down and bought an E Starter first. Not that the herd is always right but with so many positive feed backs on the E Starter...well you know.

The last plane I built and flew as a teenager was a Ugly Stik with a YS45 on a tuned pipe, man I wish I still had that plane. I will order a Simple Stik to build in the future with larger scalloped control surfaces and other mods. Right now I just need a daily flyer to get some stick time.

Twmaster

You won't be disappointed with the E-Starter. Darn good airplane. Likely even better than this Simple Stick.

smokejohnson

I hope so. I spent a lot of time on my first venture back in the hobby, a Four Star 60. Tried to maiden it myself ,stupid idea , crashed of course. I then put a GP Yard Stik together that flew great but got boring after about 20 flights. I just need a good 4 ch plane to get the rust off my thumbs. I want to fly like I did when I was 16 .

Twmaster

Well I just thought I'd toss another progress report out here.

I have easily 20 flights on this and am overall quite happy with the plane.

I've got it mostly trimmed out and set the rates to 65% and it flies so much better.

The only really poor point with this plane is the landing gear. They are unbelievably weak and now need to be replaced.

One other mod I did was to remove the battery tray. Instead I simply put Velcro on the bottom of the fuse floor and stuck the battery directly to it. Works great and balances perfect with a 3 cell Vampower 1700mA pack all the way up front.

smokejohnson

Glad to hear it Mike. I'm still working on my E Starter. I still plan on getting a Simple Stick for sentimental reasons so other than the landing gear what other mods would you recommend?

Ajoe

Nice plane SJ
How do you paint it ?

smokejohnson

Thanks Ajoe. Here is recent thread with a lot of good info on painting planes. I use Minwax water based polyurethane and Krylon H2O latex paint. Works great and it's easy to use.

Twmaster

Smoke other than the battery tray and landing gear I'd likely cover it with something other than packing tape.

That's about it.

flydiver

Have you (or anyone) figured out a good replacement for the stock landing gear?

fly

Twmaster

Simply replacing the nasty soft wire gear included should be fine. I'm going to install a wood block on the bottom with some bracing inside the fuse and mount a carbon fiber landing gear set off an E-Flite Extra on this one.

EDIT: I should add that my comment above about replacing the weak stock landing gear wire should be done before installing the landing gear during assembly. Once installed it will not be easy to get the stock gear out of the fuse without major surgery.

smokejohnson

Be sure to post some pics. Something like that is what I was thinking of trying.

Twmaster

Will do. I'm hoping to get that done tomorrow evening as I've been flying this plane a lot and really want to get it fixed so I can burn up some more sky!

Twmaster

Well I got the gear repaired. I thought I was going to have a disaster on my hands as I made the wood parts to mount the new gear and somehow I put the floor plate with the mounting holes pre drilled in the fuse upside down!!

Anyhow, I've managed to get past that goof up and the gear works great. Flew the plane 4 times today. I'll post pics of the setup tomorrow after work as the batteries in -both- of my cameras are dead.

smokejohnson

Are you still flying the Stick Mike?

Twmaster

Yes I am. I recently had a bad crash with it due to the failure of a Spektrum RX. Busted the firewall and rudder up. The repairs have been completed and I'm ready to give it a go as soon as the weather (and time) cooperate!

I still like this plane a lot.

Twmaster

Also here are the promised photos of the new landing gear.

It turned out the E-Flite gear I had intended to use would not fit well so I went with these I found in my junk box. No idea where they came from.

Since the gear is nice and stout I'll be removing them to recover the bottom of the fuse with colored tape.

In the second pic you can see the mounting of the SK400XT and some of the firewall repairs I made after the last 'incident'.

smokejohnson

Cool thanks for the picks Mike. I'm glad to hear you're still liking the plane.

smokejohnson

Anybody still flying this plane?

blueapplepaste

Well, I've been so busy with work and finishing up my master's I haven't done much flying at all, or visiting to this site! I never got a chance to maiden her, and until this past weekend, it had been about 8 months since I last flew. So I'm going to spend a couple of weekends on my slow stick to "get it back", and then finally take her out for a maiden. Will update soon.