2018/2109 Balsa build along Radical RC mini stick

[jaredstrees]

Ok, While waiting for the stick 400 to arrive, thought I'd take a crack at this little guy. At only $34 for the kit seems like it was a no brainer. The first one to arrive came damaged. Sent Radical some pics and after a brief phone call the new kit was on its way. There was one broken former in the replacement, but that was easy enough to glue and certainly not Radical's fault. Very happy with Radical's customer service on this.

So this bird has a 23" wing span and at 14.5" long should finish out at about 7oz. I've got a HURC 260 2200kv to throw on the front spinning a 5" prop. I'd like to use a 12a ESC, but Heads up Rc is out of stock, so a little 20A it is. Round it out with three 5g servos and I hope to have a decent flying little plane. She's going to get utltracote, cause that is what I have. It may be a little heavier than parklite or solite, but there is so little of it I think It'll be fine.

 

[jaredstrees]

So I started the wing last night. I am glad I have done a balsa build before. This plane is notched, tabbed, etc so fit is great and the laser cutting is wonderful. The pieces fall out even easier than the mountain models builds. The problem is the instructions. There are no picture. You get a few pages of type and one small schematic, almost like plans that have been shrunk. I was able to figure things out, but a builder with no experience would be frustrated.



But I will say, once I got moving the build went well.



Those ribs were a bit of a pain. Everyone of them tabs into the center spar. You then need to carefully align each at 90 deg to the spar and glue. It was almost to much for much gorilla hands to juggle that!



But in about an hour I had the wing finished.



Tonight I'll work on the tail feathers and Wednesday night the fuse. Hope to have it all ready to cover early next week. Going out of town this weekend, so next weekend is my goal for a maiden.

 

[Turbojoe]

I built two of these many years back. Obliterated the first one doing a low altitude figure 9 right into the ground. I got applause for that dumb move.

I still have the second one though it has a lot of hanger rash. Mainly torn covering. I haven't flown it in at least 6-8 years. I can't stress strongly enough that Ultracote is absolutely the wrong covering for this little bird. Aside from the weight the shrink rate will crush it into a bag of balsa dust. I love and use Ultracote but not on a bird like this. It's way too fragile.

This thing is fast and gets too small to see in a hurry so be careful with the throttle on the first flight. All that aside it's way fun to fly and I don't remember any bad habits at all. This might be a good candidate for that UMX AS3X brushless setup I've had laying around forever. This could be a resurrection sooner than later......

Joe

 

[Grifflyer]

Cool!!

 

[jaredstrees]

I built two of these many years back. Obliterated the first one doing a low altitude figure 9 right into the ground. I got applause for that dumb move.

I still have the second one though it has a lot of hanger rash. Mainly torn covering. I haven't flown it in at least 6-8 years. I can't stress strongly enough that Ultracote is absolutely the wrong covering for this little bird. Aside from the weight the shrink rate will crush it into a bag of balsa dust. I love and use Ultracote but not on a bird like this. It's way too fragile.

This thing is fast and gets too small to see in a hurry so be careful with the throttle on the first flight. All that aside it's way fun to fly and I don't remember any bad habits at all. This might be a good candidate for that UMX AS3X brushless setup I've had laying around forever. This could be a resurrection sooner than later......

Joe

Ok shoot. Guess I'll need some solite or parklite then. Got any other covering recommendations?

 

[Turbojoe]

Ok shoot. Guess I'll need some solite or parklite then. Got any other covering recommendations?

Unfortunately Nelson closed its doors months ago. (Solarfilm/Solite) so finding any will be rough. The many other clones should be easy enough to find. Maybe even in a LHS. That nice Hershey bar wing makes covering a breeze. You'll be done ready for maiden in no time. Oh yeah, Use a LOT of expo on aileron and elevator. It reacts fast!

Joe

 

[jaredstrees]

I haven't used parklite before. Would that be ok? I understand it is supposed to be for smaller light eight models. I'm going to jump on Mountain Models site. He still had some solite left last time I looked.

 

[Turbojoe]

I haven't used parklite before. Would that be ok? I understand it is supposed to be for smaller light eight models. I'm going to jump on Mountain Models site. He still had some solite left last time I looked.

If Brian is out the Solite then the Parklite is fine. Looks like if it's not actually rebranded Solite it's a pretty close clone. I have a few rolls of it in my protected stash vault.

Joe

 

[jaredstrees]

Sounds good. Thanks Joe! Always a help. Glad you saw this before I made kindling.

 

[TooJung2Die]

Ok shoot. Guess I'll need some solite or parklite then. Got any other covering recommendations?

Doculam! Very light and tough. It comes in various strengths. 1.5 mil won't warp delicate balsa frames when shrunk. It's clear so you'll want to add your own color. Here's where you can buy it by the foot instead of huge 500 foot rolls.
New Stuff Laminating Films

 

[Turbojoe]

Here's a shot of mine after blowing some of the dust off it. I still have a box somewhere with the remnants of the first one. Why? Who knows......

The covering is pulling loose in several spots and the H-stab is only held on by the pushrod. With a re-cover and some glue it'll fly again. I'm putting it in the rehab queue. It'll be #5 rehab after 3 other new builds are done. It may be a while....

This one is covered with Solarfilm. I was very careful when shrinking the white or it can do damage if you get crazy with the heat. The red metallic Solarfilm acts more like Solite. It would be hard to over shrink it. Only the metallics seem to be like that. As suggested above Doculam is also a good alternative. Doug used to include it in all Mountain Models kits. A few years back I built several small boxes out of 1/8" balsa sticks and covered them with Doculam painted on the adhesive side. I shrunk it tight and didn't see any deformation. It took paint well too. I'd be careful with paint application or it could get real heavy.

Joe

 

[jaredstrees]

Looks good! I am going with a red and white scheme as well, but quite a bit different than yours! Looking forward to getting this one in the air. My current go to is the das little stick from plans here on this forum. I'd like something a little nicer to be able to toss in the back of the car for a few quick flights no matter the field size!

 

[jaredstrees]

So the tail feathers were a breeze. Only a few caps to glue on and a little sanding. Took all of 5 minutes.



I wasn't planning on doing the fuse last night, but the tail was so quick I needed something to do. This was pretty easy as well, but again the instructions were lacking. Some of the parts required aren't shown on the schematic, and since the balsa isn't marked it takes a little guess work. Again, not a big deal if you've got some building experience, but this is not a first kit.

I didn't finish, as it was getting late, that will happen tonight. I may also get the electronics in her tonight, but if not that should be done tomorrow. I want to be able to cover her Monday or Tuesday when I get back into town. So far she's coming along well, simple build, just mediocre instructions would be my only complaint.

 

[Turbojoe]

Builds almost as fast as a bARF doesn't it? You know for only $34.00 it's almost worth it for me to get another kit and purpose build it with my AS3X package I got off RC Groups. It's from a UMX Pitts S1. My flying UMX Pitts S1 is pretty fast and flys as stable as a .40 size plane even in some breezes. The Mini Stick might even end up lighter....

You should be ready for maiden before the weekend!

Joe

 

[jaredstrees]

Oh, if I had the covering here I would be! As it is, she'll be ready to cover Monday. Covering should be here that day.

And yeah, I was ordering the stick 400 and saw this. At $34 I couldn't say no. I may just pick up another so when I rekit this one I can build another!

 

[Turbojoe]

At $34 I couldn't say no. I may just pick up another so when I rekit this one I can build another!

It flys great so don't do anything stoopid like I did with the first one and it'll stay in one piece for quite a while.

I put a kit in the cart to check shipping and it's only 3 bucks for the cheapest shipping! It took a lot for me not to click the buy button. Too many other kits and projects going on to buy yet another kit. Heck, I've got a prototype kit to build that will be showing up tomorrow. My daughters 3D printer shows up Friday and I have to build that. I'll probably grab another Mini Stick after the first of the year. Maybe the Mini Low wing stick instead for something different. It's only 4 bucks more and has landing gear.

Joe

 

[jaredstrees]

If you do, I want to see the build. I could probably have improved this plane a lot if you had a build log done for one!

 

[Turbojoe]

Well I got curious and pulled her back out again along with the UMX gear. I figured I'd better first make sure the airframe was sound so I threw her on the desk and stripped her bare. I'd post pix but she's kinda shy.......

But seriously, using the heat gun I was able get 99.5% of everything off. There are a few spots where the pigment stayed behind but I can sand that off later. It's a good thing I stripped her. Hanger life has not been kind to her. The fuse had cracked sheeting in several places and the right side trailing edge was broken and the horizontal stab was hanging on by only the pushrod. All of the broken stuff has been repaired. I need to work out the UMX gear mounting. That's going to take some time and a lot of trial and error. I might make a bottom hatch on the fuse for battery changes so I don't have to pull the wing and have to unplug the servos each time.

Looking forward to your covering pix and the maiden report.

Joe

 

[jaredstrees]

It's amazing how easily a plane get beaten up in storage or transport.

 

[jaredstrees]

I managed to finish the fuse up last night. I will say this plane fits together very nice! Everything lines up well, and with such a low piece count it's hard to miss anything. It's been sanded and tonight I'll mount the electronics. I will need to tinker with the wing fit. It is not going completely into the saddle. I think with a minimal amount of sanding on the TE of the wing and front of the rear former area will solve the problem.



And of course, I could not resist a little mock up!



I just can't get over how small this thing is!