FTFC20 - April Showers by The Hangar (Simple Stick)

[The Hangar]

FTFC20 - April Showers by The Hangar - (Build Skill: 4 - Pilot Skill: 4)

Alright, so my entry is the Simple Stick that I made plans for. I uploaded the plans as a resource - Link to plans!
I chose to do the Simple Stick since it flies really well and this challenge would give me the kick I need to get the plans done and a good excuse to build another to train several of my friends on.

Wingspan is roughly 41 inches from aileron tip to tip.
AUW with a 2200 3s is about 860 grams
Radial C pack with 8x5 or 9x6 prop (will use a 4s 1500 that weighs about the same weight as the 2200 3s)

 

[The Hangar]

Alright, I have some Maker Foam that should be getting here the beginning of next week so I'll be able to build the SS when that arrives.

 

[FoamyDM]

any progress on this guy?

 

[The Hangar]

any progress on this guy?

Well it was rainy today so it got me thinking about it. I have it all cut out and plan to build it over the weekend. There’s a little rain forecasted for Saturday so I might try to maiden it then, or I might put some floats on (that I built for my very first scout over a year ago) and fly off some water nearby.

 

[The Hangar]

Alright - the simple stick got built today! Now I need to go dig out those floats and figure out how to attach them since there isn't any rain forecasted for the rest of the month.

 

[Hondo76251]

sounds much more dramatic to say, "The rest of the month" rather than the next 4 days... lol

 

[The Hangar]

sounds much more dramatic to say, "The rest of the month" rather than the next 4 days... lol

 

[Hondo76251]

@The Hangar Well... it has been a long month...

 

[The Hangar]

Well I have an overflowing boneyard since I hardly ever throw away planes even when I crash them. Probably sounds stupid but it’s hard for me to throw a plane away that I have many memories associated with or that I spent a long time working on. Anyways I’ve tried to go in and throw stuff away that I don’t plan on using again. Well of course the floats happened to be one of them (as well as another plane that I went looking for then realized I had tossed it as well... ). Anyways I took the floats from my retired FF cub and those will go on tomorrow. I should be able to maiden it tomorrow or Wednesday!

 

[The Hangar]

So I'm not using any special waterproofing techniques on this plane since I'm building it out of the new maker foam. The maker foam is awesome! I love working with it. One thing I did notice that after painting it and peeling off the masking tape it pulled off quite a bit of the paper. I probably should have rubbed the tape on my pants to make it less stick first, but still a little disappointing. I'm hoping I just had a bad sheet or something.
Here's the wing in progress:

servo installation:

and the wing is done!

The fuse is taking shape!

Now she has a tail!

Tail servos in!

The floats I will be using are the ones for the simple cub. Link to the floats

Ok, here she is- all it needs now is a sweet paint job!

And here she is with the paint! I do plan on adding the black crosses sometime but it was getting late and would have taken too much time.

 

[The Hangar]

Ok, the stats are added to the first post! I'll get a couple more pics from the build.

 

[The Hangar]

The maiden was a huge success!! The video is uploading!

 

[Rhaps]

The maiden was a huge success!! The video is uploading!
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Congrats, almost like mine!

 

[The Hangar]

Congrats, almost like mine!
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Whoops! At least it's waterproof...

 

[The Hangar]

So, the takeaway. I'm super happy with how it turned out. It flies absolutely awesome and is super aerobatic! This is my first time successfully flying off the water and it's a super awesome experience! It was easy to take off and land, and touch-n-goes were a breeze! It was plenty powerful with the radial C pack and a 9x6 prop on 3s. Tips for future builders would be to reinforce the landing gear slots. I didn't when I built it and afterward I couldn't access the rear slots. So far the 2 flights it's had it hasn't been an issue but I can imagine after a couple of rough landings it'll start to get loose. Overall it's a super easy build and a blast to fly off of the water - I highly recommended it!

 

[The Hangar]

Also, the visibility was outstanding with the red, white, and yellow!

 

[The Hangar]

Here’s the maiden video:

 

[FoamyDM]

Nice Work all around, Thank you for joining the few and brave who attempted this challenge.

 

[The Hangar]

Nice Work all around, Thank you for joining the few and brave who attempted this challenge.

Thank you for having it - I never would have guessed it was so fun to fly off of the water!