MidWest Sweet-Stick Plans
08-05-2012, 11:10 AM
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RE: MidWest Sweet-Stick Plans
ORIGINAL: Aero Antics
I was dredging google for sweet stik plans and found this thread.
Let me give a big THANK YOU to Jim!!
Most of the links I found on google were so out dated that I didnt notice that this one was recent. Well I got a bit excited when I downloaded the plans and didnt even read the whole thread.
I came back today to read the thread and see if there was any more info. I built my Stick around 77 or 78 and I thought there was a couple of sheets of instructions. Its been long enough that I dont remeber if it had scalloped surfaces so I'm not sure of the version of the one I built.
I lost mine on the first flight and have always wanted another one.
I was dredging google for sweet stik plans and found this thread.
Let me give a big THANK YOU to Jim!!
Most of the links I found on google were so out dated that I didnt notice that this one was recent. Well I got a bit excited when I downloaded the plans and didnt even read the whole thread.
I came back today to read the thread and see if there was any more info. I built my Stick around 77 or 78 and I thought there was a couple of sheets of instructions. Its been long enough that I dont remeber if it had scalloped surfaces so I'm not sure of the version of the one I built.
I lost mine on the first flight and have always wanted another one.
Cheers,
Andy
08-05-2012, 05:00 PM
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RE: MidWest Sweet-Stick Plans
oldtyme you put a 45 on a little stik? That ought to go like crazy and climb like a monkey on a string. I have owned two little stiks in the past. They were what I learned to fly on. Both had OS 25sbut I don't remember which ones.A couple of months ago I found a kit on Ebay. Im just waiting on cooler weather to build it.
Jim Purcha posted a PDF Sweet Stik plan and thats what i used for my Sweet Stik. I downloaded the file to a disc. You have to label it sweet stik.PDF.I then took it to staples and had them run it off. The biggest they could do was a 46" wingspan. Perfect for a little stik.SoI cut up the plan and had them enlarge the pieces 20%. That gave me a 54.5" wingspan. Thats what I wanted. I also have the old straight wing model plansthat has the open wing framework without the leading edge sheeting. I bought those off ebay and you can still get them. They have a parts tracing that comes with it too.That was the first sweet stik I had back in about 1980. It was light weight and flew very, very well. I cut the wing and added dihedral and for me it flew even better. With the flat wing it was always hunting and needed correction. That could have been old radios and also a by product of the sloppy bellcranks.
Here's i couple of pics of my new Sweet Stik. It came out a little heavier than planned but it is rock solid in the air. Its not at all twitchy. Its just like driving my GMCSierra down the hiway. Stable and smooth. It still lifts off in just a few feet and lands at a walk. I much prefer it the GP Big Stik 40I have.
Jim Purcha posted a PDF Sweet Stik plan and thats what i used for my Sweet Stik. I downloaded the file to a disc. You have to label it sweet stik.PDF.I then took it to staples and had them run it off. The biggest they could do was a 46" wingspan. Perfect for a little stik.SoI cut up the plan and had them enlarge the pieces 20%. That gave me a 54.5" wingspan. Thats what I wanted. I also have the old straight wing model plansthat has the open wing framework without the leading edge sheeting. I bought those off ebay and you can still get them. They have a parts tracing that comes with it too.That was the first sweet stik I had back in about 1980. It was light weight and flew very, very well. I cut the wing and added dihedral and for me it flew even better. With the flat wing it was always hunting and needed correction. That could have been old radios and also a by product of the sloppy bellcranks.
Here's i couple of pics of my new Sweet Stik. It came out a little heavier than planned but it is rock solid in the air. Its not at all twitchy. Its just like driving my GMCSierra down the hiway. Stable and smooth. It still lifts off in just a few feet and lands at a walk. I much prefer it the GP Big Stik 40I have.
08-06-2012, 06:33 PM
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RE: MidWest Sweet-Stick Plans
Ratshooter,
I ran into the same issues with the printing. I went back t Staples after I measured some of the components on the plans. I told them what was wrong and they called the person in charge of the printing area to help me. She worked on it for quite a while. I askd her what she needed in a .pdf file because I have the Adobe suite and I could crop or change the drawing. She said that the software kept defaulting to the standard engineering size sheets and that when she went to "Custom Size" it defaulted to millimeters. She asked me I could take a look at it. I looked at the software and noticed that it defaulted to metric, however it was 0.1 millimeters. So... we set the width to 9142 which comes out to 36". then we set the length lo 15000, which came out to just under 60". The plan printed correctly after that.
Hope this helps if anyone else has the issue.
I ran into the same issues with the printing. I went back t Staples after I measured some of the components on the plans. I told them what was wrong and they called the person in charge of the printing area to help me. She worked on it for quite a while. I askd her what she needed in a .pdf file because I have the Adobe suite and I could crop or change the drawing. She said that the software kept defaulting to the standard engineering size sheets and that when she went to "Custom Size" it defaulted to millimeters. She asked me I could take a look at it. I looked at the software and noticed that it defaulted to metric, however it was 0.1 millimeters. So... we set the width to 9142 which comes out to 36". then we set the length lo 15000, which came out to just under 60". The plan printed correctly after that.
Hope this helps if anyone else has the issue.
08-06-2012, 07:58 PM
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RE: MidWest Sweet-Stick Plans
Hello Allen. The only problem I had at Staples is that the disc I had needed to be labeled a PDF file. When I came back home and recopied the plan I labeled it Sweet Stik.PDF and I was good to go. When I had the plans enlarged I also had them run off a 25% copy for a wingspan of 58" that pretty much matches my GP big stik 40.
When you get into the metric stuff my eyes cross and my knees get weak. I started working at my dads machine shop when I was 10 years old. I am all up on on the english method of measuring and fractions for me are a breeze. But that what is what Ilearned and am bewildered by metric stuff. Its something I need to study on.
But anyway I plan to build another Sweet Stik and you can bet the next one will be light weight. It will have built up tail feathers and a non sheeted wing just like the first SSI built many years ago. I wish I had an idea of the hours of flight time I had on that plane. It had been crashed and patched so much and was no longer pretty but it flew like a Sultans magic carpet. I don't know why patched up planes fly so well but they just do. Maybe they have been tweaked and tuned and adjusted to the point that they have no choice but to fly.
Here is a couple of pics of my newest Stik plane. Not wood but Coroplast and it just flies so well it has to be seen to be beleived. Its a SPAD, simple plastic airplane design and I cannot figure out why these are not more popular. They are as rugged as a Bowie knife and fly like there is no tommorow. The guys at the field ask lots of questions and really like it but I will be surprised if I ever see another show up.
When you get into the metric stuff my eyes cross and my knees get weak. I started working at my dads machine shop when I was 10 years old. I am all up on on the english method of measuring and fractions for me are a breeze. But that what is what Ilearned and am bewildered by metric stuff. Its something I need to study on.
But anyway I plan to build another Sweet Stik and you can bet the next one will be light weight. It will have built up tail feathers and a non sheeted wing just like the first SSI built many years ago. I wish I had an idea of the hours of flight time I had on that plane. It had been crashed and patched so much and was no longer pretty but it flew like a Sultans magic carpet. I don't know why patched up planes fly so well but they just do. Maybe they have been tweaked and tuned and adjusted to the point that they have no choice but to fly.
Here is a couple of pics of my newest Stik plane. Not wood but Coroplast and it just flies so well it has to be seen to be beleived. Its a SPAD, simple plastic airplane design and I cannot figure out why these are not more popular. They are as rugged as a Bowie knife and fly like there is no tommorow. The guys at the field ask lots of questions and really like it but I will be surprised if I ever see another show up.
08-08-2012, 02:45 PM
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RE: MidWest Sweet-Stick Plans
oldtyme you put a 45 on a little stik? That ought to go like crazy and climb like a monkey on a string. I have owned two little stiks in the past. They were what I learned to fly on. Both had OS 25s but I don't remember which ones. A couple of months ago I found a kit on Ebay. Im just waiting on cooler weather to build it.
ratshooter, No I had the 45 on my Sweet Stik, my son, however, put a 40 and a Little Stik and it was hard to handle. By the way, the original Sweet Stiks were tri-cycle gear.
If you need plans and the instructions for a Sweet Stik, I have a copy or two I can fix you up with.
Email me at [email protected]
Cheers,
Andy
ratshooter, No I had the 45 on my Sweet Stik, my son, however, put a 40 and a Little Stik and it was hard to handle. By the way, the original Sweet Stiks were tri-cycle gear.
If you need plans and the instructions for a Sweet Stik, I have a copy or two I can fix you up with.
Email me at [email protected]
Cheers,
Andy
08-08-2012, 06:45 PM
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RE: MidWest Sweet-Stick Plans
Hello Andy. Thanks for the offer but I have enough stik plans at this point thatI can run them up and down in scale as needed. Right now all I want to fly is the coroplast stik I showed in my last post. This is an amazing plane that is almost indestructable. I do have my wood sweet stik sitting on the workbench soI can charge it for a round of flights this weekend. And like I saidI will build another version of this plane with a lot of changes. Mine flies good but I can see lots of room for improvements. Long live stiks. Too bad the RC world is so consumed with ARFs and scale planes. No matter how scale a model is it will always be just a model. I am not sure how I would handle spending 1000 hours on a scale model to only see it crash. Phil Kraft had the right idea with a quick to build disposable model whos loss is just a mild irritation.
I have two sweet stik plan versions now. The one the Jim Purcha posted and the original plan from Midwest with the open flat wing structure with no dihedral and the pieced together fusalage. That was the first sweet stik I had and what a flier it was. I even scratch built my own sweetstik from memory when I got back into RC for the second time. I wanted a sweet stik because that was my favorite plane to fly but they were no longer available. I couldn't beleive such a fine model had been discontinued. So I ordered the wood and the radio and engine from Tower. I got out the butcher paper and a booklet on designing model planes and drew up my own plans. Instead of an 18% airfoil my plane had a 15% airfoil. It din't land as slow as my sweetstik but let me tell you that sucker was fast. And it still flew like a stik. Rock solid. Here is a photo. A picture of a picture so its not real good.
I have two sweet stik plan versions now. The one the Jim Purcha posted and the original plan from Midwest with the open flat wing structure with no dihedral and the pieced together fusalage. That was the first sweet stik I had and what a flier it was. I even scratch built my own sweetstik from memory when I got back into RC for the second time. I wanted a sweet stik because that was my favorite plane to fly but they were no longer available. I couldn't beleive such a fine model had been discontinued. So I ordered the wood and the radio and engine from Tower. I got out the butcher paper and a booklet on designing model planes and drew up my own plans. Instead of an 18% airfoil my plane had a 15% airfoil. It din't land as slow as my sweetstik but let me tell you that sucker was fast. And it still flew like a stik. Rock solid. Here is a photo. A picture of a picture so its not real good.
08-10-2012, 10:19 AM
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RE: MidWest Sweet-Stick Plans
ORIGINAL: oldtyme
oldtyme you put a 45 on a little stik? That ought to go like crazy and climb like a monkey on a string. I have owned two little stiks in the past. They were what I learned to fly on. Both had OS 25s but I don't remember which ones. A couple of months ago I found a kit on Ebay. Im just waiting on cooler weather to build it.
ratshooter, No I had the 45 on my Sweet Stik, my son, however, put a 40 and a Little Stik and it was hard to handle. By the way, the original Sweet Stiks were tri-cycle gear.
If you need plans and the instructions for a Sweet Stik, I have a copy or two I can fix you up with.
Email me at [email protected]
Cheers,
Andy
oldtyme you put a 45 on a little stik? That ought to go like crazy and climb like a monkey on a string. I have owned two little stiks in the past. They were what I learned to fly on. Both had OS 25s but I don't remember which ones. A couple of months ago I found a kit on Ebay. Im just waiting on cooler weather to build it.
ratshooter, No I had the 45 on my Sweet Stik, my son, however, put a 40 and a Little Stik and it was hard to handle. By the way, the original Sweet Stiks were tri-cycle gear.
If you need plans and the instructions for a Sweet Stik, I have a copy or two I can fix you up with.
Email me at [email protected]
Cheers,
Andy
I could use the building instructions, and any other info that came with the kits.
I will send you an email.
11-22-2016, 09:45 PM
#33
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These are really good plans of the Sweet Stik
I just framed up a sweet stik from these plans (the ones posted on this thread by Jim Purcha). I think they are much better plans for a scratch builder than the earlier ones. It looks like Midwest did a revision of the kit at sometime to make the plane easier to build. About the only thing I changed is using a flat wing instead of dihedral. Thanks for posting these plans.
