RobStagis

Nuthin' against all the good trainers on the market (if I had my druthers, I'd probably end up with an LT40 or something) BUT:

My favorite all-time plane was my Balsa USA Stik 40 plus. Reasons? I didn't have a 'formal' instructor - my brother taught me, and due to multiple (and humorous) reasons, I trashed, over a couple years, a Goldberg Eagle II and a Sig Kadet MKII (the original 4-channel trainer from Sig). I got tired of trying to make 'em pretty again, and my ham-handed handling caused hangar rash pretty regularly. So, says I, what's a tougher/simpler/cheaper plane? Ah ha!!! The Stik!

It's based on an OLD design - the Swizzle Stik. It's basically a crutch (nothing fancy here - it really looks like the kind of crutch you use when you sprain an ankle) laid on its side. The 'cabin' is a plywood box built on top. The tail 'feathers' are solid balsa planks. Glue the stabilizer to the pointy end. Glue the rudder on top of that. The wing is a basic flat-bottom, FAT, airfoil with these huge ailerons out on the tips. The wingtips are blocks of balsa you carve and sand to shape. Very robust and it'll take a beating. And it's cheap! Balsa USA lists it at $60, but I bought mine for $35 plus shipping.

Features: Simplicity, flight characteristics and easy to repair. Simple doesn't begin to describe it. The engine and tank are screwed to the top of the crutch. Lay down a piece of foam and use 2 elastics to hold the tank down. The battery and receiver go into the bottom of the cabin. 3 servos (throttle, elevator and rudder) screw to crossbeams above that, just below the wing saddle. If built to plans (as I did) no weight was ever necessary to balance it. It build to about 4 1/2 pounds with standard, out-of-the-box Futaba gear and battery. The tailsurface pushrods hang out in the open. Repair? After one major-league crash (I was learning to spin, and wanted just a 'little more' elevator throw - whoopsie...the elevator pushrod was down to its last half-turn of adjustment. I pulled full up - and the pushrod pulled OUT. Arrow-straight dive into dirt. I had to pry the plane out and the cabin was trashed. Off to the LHS for 2 stock piece of Midwest plywood and a new cabin. $8 and 2 nights and I was flying again. When it's this easy to repair, you have less fear of doing 'something stupid'.

Flying: It'll do anything you ask of it. There's enough dihedral, per the plans, to self-correct without being an error-proof plane. In other words, it'll self-correct, but it's going to teach you to fly. I flew on an old Enya .40SS bushing motor - plenty of power. It's designed for a .29 to .40 engine, and I have no doubt it would fly on a .29, but it would be unenthusiastic. A single roll of whatever-kote will cover the wing and a spraycan of hardware-store paint does the rest. By the time I got rid of my last one, it was on its third wing cover and 4th coat of paint. Use better paint than I did.

Cons: The control throws, per the plans, are minimal and won't provide enough control for a breezy day. Build them to the maximum in the plans. I had, in both kits I built, a heavy wing tip block.....VERY heavy. I should've replaced the heavy chunk of wood with a lighter one, but didn't. I added weight, a bad thing in my book, to the light one. The aileron linkage is sloppy - a central servo runs through S-shaped pushrods out to the ailerons. It works, and I never changed it, but it isn't very precise. The instructions say to NOT fiberglas the wing joint - don't believe them. 'Glas it!!! The pic I've attached shows a taildragger, but the kit is supplied with nosegear. I built mine as taildraggers for simplicity's sake, but the plans don't show how. I screwed a tailwheel pivot to the rear tip of the fuse, ran the tailwheel gear up through the stabilizer/elevator joint, put an appropriate bend in the tailwheel wire and 'sewed' it directly to the rudder. The plans DO show where to mount taildragger main gear.

For fun? Over the years:
Huge control throws. I've won funflies with it.
After a 'bad landing', I was left with a broken wing. Looking around my basement, my eyes lit on a symmetrical wing off an UltraSport .40. It flew! It flew well! With all that drag, it wouldn't get up to a speed that took advantage of the wing's aerodynamics, but it was an easy conversion!
I flew it on floats.
I flew it on skis.
I flew in weather that scared everybody else.
I flew it in rain so heavy you could see the spray peeling off the plane.

In short, it's a fun plane that's simple to build, flies well, simple to repair (just in case), and is recognizable to older guys, which might endear you to them.......

Tattoo

I'll second the praises for this airplane! I've had 3 Swizzle sticks (going back to the late 70's)...and there is definatly something to be said about function over form when learning. It's one of the planes that took my thumbs from solo to instinctive from flying them so much. I remember when they were $12.95 and came as a 3 channel version, but showed how to add ailerons in the plans. What I like about them is you could break the fuselage booms in a cartwheel landing...and mix up some epoxy at the field....glue it back on...and be back in the air shortly

RedWing

My Feedback: (4)

RobStagis - Great description of this plane!


This is the plane I learned on.
I just dusted it off and replaced some servos and added an engine. My 8 year old son is going to start training with it. I have had to repair the front landing gear a couple of times but I have never crashed it hard (almost totaled it several times). In fact this summer after I got it back together, I took it out to test fly it. I took off with the ailerons reversed. Oh man
I wasn't sure what was wrong so I cut the throttle and pulled back on the elevator. I just made the field and landed it across the runway.
When I was at the field I got some looks like, "what is that thing?".
Then I put it on the runway and in a couple of feet took of and it flew great. They agreed on the simplistically of the plane and of course it flys great.
I hope my son has a great time when we start training.

Bill

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Never owned on but have taught a number of folks with them and they are a very functional trainer. Somehow the stark funtionality makes them a very attractive airplane.

One of the more interesting ones some years ago showed up with a gentleman who had ripped the fuse out of some 2 by 4's and some 1/4" sideing to learn how to fly on. The wing was from a Goldberg Cub and this thing had an old Israli BTA two axis auto pilot. It worked great and served him well.

John

RobStagis

Once you build one (or two) you realize there ain't nothing to building a plane! Some wood (the fuse is HARD spruce pieces), some glue, a wing - and you're in! It's funny, though. I don't think I'm that old, but young guys don't know what it is and can't believe it actually flies, let alone flies well. Heh - to paraphrase: pretty is as pretty does.....

RedWing

My Feedback: (4)

Man, I'm gonna use that line.
I Love It!!

MadScientist

Indestructible, and easy to build ( and rebuild).

This was my first plane, and my first kit as well. I bought the stick 40, which had a wing without ailerons to start. Once I joined a local club, I was advised to get the ailerons. Balsa USA makes wing kits, and the 40+ kit essentially changed my 40 to a 40 plus. The plane flys great, but needs more aileron throw than what they say. As most newbies show up at the field with an arf, this set me apart a bit. If anyone wants to build their trainer, this is a great kit to get.

I later rebuilt the original wing to have no dihedral, and strip ailerons, and in this configuration, it started me out great as an acrobatic trainer. It definitely had it's limits, but man was it easy to fix.

Grampaw

I honestly believe that it is the most underrated R/C plane made today. It's not that pretty as compared to a few ARFs with Cessna type swept fins, flashy color patterns, and sometimes even wheel covers, but it will fly just as good, and more often than not, even better. It's a great plane for beginners, but it seems some, when I recommend it, seem like they would be ashamed to bring it to the field. I get a big kick bringing it out amid the fantastic ARFs and flying rings around them all day, in any weather. Once when a wind change had the other guys packing up to leave, I was making light of it while refueling to fly again. One guy snapped back with "Yeah, but you don't mind breaking yours!" They hung around to watch me bust it up, but instead watched that ugly, simple airplane with the flat bottomed "trainer" wing fly in that mean ole wind and not break a thing. Now they will often point it out to strangers at the field telling them it's one of the best flying planes in the club! I agree with them. It's one of my all time favorites, and has been my backup and fun plane for almost 12 years now. I guess you've all figured out by now that I like "em!"

Lightfoot

My Feedback: (1)

I have recommended the Stick 40+ to more beginners than any other plane. I started with a Swizzle Stick 30 and soon changed to a 4 - channel plane. I have a Stick 40 that my dad built years ago and a Stick 40+ that is ready to cover. I am building it as a club trainer but still need to get the club to furnish an engine and radio for it. The most fitting description that I have come up with is "easy to build, easy to fly, tough as nails and ugly as sin." It is a great little airplane for beginners and sport flyers.

RVator

My Feedback: (1)

I built a stick as my trainer. Mine is a taildragger with a steerable tail skid. When I built the wing I added strip ailerons, and used an OS 46LA to power it. Sticks fly great and are very easy to build. My instuctor said Sticks were his clubs "trainer standard" for years and he said if you build it you can also fix it.

RobStagis

Stik Story: I'm flying, flying, flying, etc..... The plane seemed a little 'sloppy' on the last flight. *grin* When I landed, the tail was held on with nothing but the pushrods! Due to flight loads, the horizontal surface is pressed against the fuse (which it is just glued onto), so it didn't move around *that* much.........but it was hanging there! You've gotta love 'em.

Grampaw

Hey AVator,
I clicked on the photo of your plane, but if came up smaller than the one I clicked on! Something must have zigged when it was supposed to zag huh?

RVator

My Feedback: (1)

Sorry I resized it for you.

WhiteRook

My Feedback: (38)

The only thing i didnt like was building the wing, joining it was a pain and my dihedral came out 3/8 under, but i dont care.
its good to go, with a gp .42 tiger

I also have another one i will set up as a tail dragger.

this plane is THE BEST DEAL OUT THERE!! LT 40'S are too pretty
to crash




Dan

jaywebguy

I bought a stik 40+ about 3yrs ago, but never got around to building it because of college. After graduating in December I started flying again and last week I finally broke that kit out and started on it.

After a not so successful summer at the flying field I came to the conclusion that I needed an easier plane to fly and one that's easier to fix. I'm sure my stik 40+ will be just such a plane. I just finished the fuselage, and will start on the wing when I get back from hunting next week.

I have to admit, I was worried about building a kit and getting something wrong, but so far things have gone well, and I'm finding that I enjoying building the plane almost as much as flying them.

Oh, I'm building mine as a taildragger and I'm putting a fx .46LA on it for power.


Jason

MadScientist

The great thing about this kit is that everything is out in the open. you can see how much fuel you have, because the fuel tank is exposed. There's no real fuse, so replacing a push rod is easy. Want to build another wing that has less dihedral? you can order wing kits separately and build them as you like, or scratch build them yourself. All that, and it flies very well for a trainer. If you're building the wing, you might want to consider building it with two servos, one for each aileron, rather than one servo, as this setup is a bit more reliable and responsive. Plus, if you have a decient transmitter, you can set the rates for each servo so you have less down throw than up for each aileron, thereby correcting for any adverse yaw problems in aileron turns.

RobStagis

More Stik stories...
On floats - they add about a pound of weight. I found out ALL about tip stalls. Or, upon landing, I looked around (I was flying from my runabout) and noticed that I had attracted at least another 8 boats (spectators) around me....where to land, where to land... *sigh*.

"Huh - look at this. I've gotta tap my aileron servo for it to work.....it should be OK." 'Nuff said about THAT flight.

"Never fly into the sun...you can lose sight of your.........OH NO!" silence.

My final version was built with the biggest Dave Brown foamie wheels and a correspondingly huge tailwheel.....excellently stupid looking plane. As a fringe benefit, the big main wheels added enough drag below the thrust line that when you powered up, the plane didn't 'float' like most flat-wing trainers. It didn't go very fast, but that's not the idea either, right?

RedWing

My Feedback: (4)

Here is mine with a corplast wing on top. Now it flys like a stick.

Bill

Goinstraightup

My Feedback: (26)

I've flown 3 of these. They're really great, but as was already stated - GLASS THE WING CENTER SECTION!

I really like them, but for the 40 plus I highly recommend making the tail dragger version. The nosewheel is set up so that the control has to exit the bottom of the plane. This is a real PAIN to make this linkage. Other than that it's a great plane.

I had a bud that put a Fox 40 on one and we really wrung that plane out. FINALLY we got the engine running better than ever. On that day the wing folded (he hadn't glassed it) and the engine was destroyed in the crash[>:]

Great plane!

suitcase

My Feedback: (1)

Rvator built me a SPAD deb and talked me into buying a radio. I got the futaba with servos and started wre... flying it. I bought a stick kit from a friend who didn't have time to build it and put it together. Put a OS .46LA on it. Mine flew well first few times and then became increasingly harder to trim. Last flight it was about 300 ft up and couple hundred yards out and I couldn't get it to turn but one way. When I tried to level it out it wanted to go to the ground. Well, needless to say, it went in hard and broke the aileron servo out, wing off, several holes in the wing, aileron control rods, prop, broke loose the gear. I have the parts to put it back together. We guess that the aileron servo came loose and caused the loss of control. I had many problems in setting up the controls in the fuse. There didn't seem to be enough room between horns (elev. and rudder) and the aileron. I actually added 3/8" around the top on fuse. to try and get clearance. My aileron servo extended too far into the fuse and hit the others. Using futaba's. I've got Airtronics now and hope to have needed clearance. Will post a pic of mine later.
Also, mine was flying to the right so much that trims were excessive. I plan to turn the engine back closer to center and take some of the turn out.

Maybe some of the loops I had done put too much strain on it and caused the servo to break loose.