*Unofficial* FT Simple Stick

[Fran of the North]

Just finished monocote late last night, need some trim to sharpen her up. Opted for covering since she'll spend lots of time on the water.

I bought the all-in-one with floats, wheels and B power on sale. First maker board Aircraft, nice simple build. Well done guys!

 

[Battery800]

Just finished monocote late last night, need some trim to sharpen her up. Opted for covering since she'll spend lots of time on the water.

I bought the all-in-one with floats, wheels and B power on sale. First maker board Aircraft, nice simple build. Well done guys! View attachment 210707

oh did they bring back the white maker foam?

 

[cbf123]

Hey all...I was looking at the plans and the build video and saw no mention of control surface throws. Is it basically to taste?

 

[danskis]

@Intashu - I was just thinking of doing the same thing with the simple stick. How'd your low wing turn out?

 

[CappyAmeric]

Hey all...I was looking at the plans and the build video and saw no mention of control surface throws. Is it basically to taste?

Simply Stick is very aerobatic, so maximum throws if you can handle it!

 

[TheFlyingBrit]

I only fly the Hangers version and to be honest I use 3 rates: low, medium and full. I take off with low rates then, flick over to medium for some aerobatics. Never needed to go to full rates to be honest, I am sure I will get around to trying it one day.
Sorry I did fly once for a short spell with full rates, it cant haft spin LOL

 

[Intashu]

@Intashu - I was just thinking of doing the same thing with the simple stick. How'd your low wing turn out?

Haha funny you should mention that.. I managed to fold the wing on the maiden! got a little carried away on my turns and it buckled on me, should have added a spar along with the wing's structure!
My father took the body and added his own simple stick wing, to which he totaled the body of his.. and created a Mutt flyer. which has successfully flown 3 times now without any issues at all.

 

[danskis]

@Intashu - thanks for the reply. Yeah, I learned the hard way and now I always throw a couple of bamboo skewers on the foam spars to prevent that glorious site of the wings folding.

 

[TheFlyingBrit]

I have folded a wing on my first 4ch Tiny Trainer with the f pack motor, I was proud of that achievement until my son managed to do the same .
After the second instance I started installing a 3mm CF rod across the wing acting like a spar. I only bury it 5mm into the foam then secure it in place with Gorilla glue, works a treat never folded a wing since.

 

[camago64]

View attachment 177325
What the heck is that? An fpv mount?

That is a NACA air Intake

 

[camago64]

I would pay 5 bucks for plans as long as I could get them within a day or two within the reliese

Just become a member of FTCA (free) and youll get the plans

 

[TheFlyingBrit]

That is a NACA air Intake

There are several NACA ducts on this particular car, they are basically air ducts which direct cool airflow across hot areas and are used for cooling.
On a model aircraft the ESC can get quite hot when your continuously pulling a lot of amps, this isn't a major problem if the ESC is in line with the air flow or externally mounted. However, if the ESC is buried within the fuselage or wing perhaps. A "NACA" duct is used to channel air flow across the ESC to aid with cooling.
A common mistake with model builders is putting a NACA duct on a plane, but forgetting to leave a vent (exit point), for air to leave the fuselage. The result is the air ballooning inside the fuselage, this can lead to the canopy blowing off mid flight.

 

[Gilwo]

Sponz, I am finding a problem printing the v1.1 plans on A size paper on an Epson paper. The registration symbols do not print on half the pages which include the wings. I do not have the problem on all 24 pages. The total airplane in A size is pages 10-33. I am missing the registration symbols on pages 22-25 and probably pages 30-33. I took a photo of pages 18-25 which have been trimmed to the dashed lines on those pages which show the dashed lines. The lines and registration marks are missing on 22-25 and maybe you can make that out in the photo. Am I having a fight with my Epson printer or are these missing on these pages? The pages which print correctly leave 3/4 inch margin at top and bottom to the edge of the paper and about 1/4 inch on the sides.

 

[Gilwo]

I am building a new airframe Simple Stick because the wings folded. I think some reinforcement is necessary. I'll probably use a carbon fiber rod that a flying friend gave me for a different problem. Skewers might do the job fine. Motor got crunched in the resulting crash. An earlier motor got crunched when a big mean Timber X 1.2M cut me in half. He flew on merrily. We're good friends

 

[Gilwo]

Hi, can you tell me how to upload an avatar?

Trevor. I just did it by clicking on my generic avatar and found then that it could be edited. I chose a photo of myself holdng my first Simple Stick. You presumably can use any photo or file you have in .jpg format. I didn't ask, I just plunged ahead.

 

[Gilwo]

I am currently building my 5th and 6th Flite Test Simple Stick planes. Two from Flite Test kits. The rest from plans. Three from Sponz's plans and one from my own set of plans before I became aware of Sponz's plans. The current two are using Sponz's plans because they are more accurate than my own.

Two times the wings have folded up on me. Once I was cut in half by a mean mean Timber 1.2M flown by a friend of mine. I am adding a carbon fiber spar to the wing this time.

I also have added 3 additional spacers to the elevator and rudder control wires at the front of the wire and one added spacer to the rear control wire support. I stick in the control wire, attach it to the servo and through the slot at the rear and add spacers until the control wire is as straight as possible. Glue all the spacers in then.

I also prefer to use adjustable screws to attach the servo control arm to the control wire so that I can take out the slight errors in trim which are evident while flying.

One crash destroyed the ESC and two crashes damaged the electric motors so I had to buy new ones from FliteTest. I'm getting good enough with all the practice that I don't need to watch Josh's video anymore but it was invaluable the first few times.

It sure would be nice if the plans included a set to be printed on legal paper. My Epson printer will do A (letter) size and legal size but not B size. It takes 24 sheets of paper laboriously pieced together to do all three sheets of foam. It takes about two days to build two airplanes if the parts are already cut out of the foam core board. Another day to cut out all the parts for two airplanes. If the plane is all built, it doesn't take so long to move the electronics from the crashed plane to a new one. Since I'm totally inhabiting the dining room table, I might as well build two at a time.

 

[Gilwo]

Admittedly my landings are not always flawless. In my defense, they are sometimes pretty good. But I've had the wire poke through the foam it is hot-glued into. And, with the length of wire that comes with the kit, my propellor frequently breaks tips off on hard landings. In frustration, I bought some longer wire and designed my own landing gear wire. My wire design is harder to bend accurately. I used a paper template with 1" square quadrille penciled onto it and then did my best to match the left side to the right side. It is shown below with narrow wheels but I also have two much wider hub "stompin'" wheels available. Two photos below:

 

[Gilwo]

I built a landing gear with ordinary 1/8 inch steel wire which I could bend easily. Well, the plane could bend it pretty easily as well. So, I bought a chunk of stainless steel about 3/4 inch thick, bought a 3 foot chunk of 1/4 inch steel rod, and drilled three holes in 1/4 inch diameter. Cut off pieces of rod 1 1/4 inch long and drove them into the three holes.

With that mounted in a bench vice, I could bend 1/8 inch piano wire. It helps a lot to put fairly hard pressure on the wire and then use a hammer to focus the bend as close as possible to the steel rod. The piano wire is much harder to bend but it makes a sturdy, durable landing gear. This has held up without needing rebending for over 3 weeks of good and not so good landings.

 

[dap35]

Admittedly my landings are not always flawless. In my defense, they are sometimes pretty good. But I've had the wire poke through the foam it is hot-glued into. And, with the length of wire that comes with the kit, my propellor frequently breaks tips off on hard landings. In frustration, I bought some longer wire and designed my own landing gear wire. My wire design is harder to bend accurately. I used a paper template with 1" square quadrille penciled onto it and then did my best to match the left side to the right side. It is shown below with narrow wheels but I also have two much wider hub "stompin'" wheels available. Two photos below:

I found that soldering in a set of thin cross wires keeps the gear from squatting on landings. Pictures on this thread :==>
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.p...-fest-2022-dawn-patrol-challenge.69361/page-7 (post #123)

 

[cbf123]

I bought a wire bending jig for bending the thick piano wire for the Stick. Haven't actually done it yet though.