tony0707

I do have my 40 Midwest Sweet Stik story to tell

I was flying RC for a short time about 1980 when a friend of mine that sells real estate found a MSS in a tree in the back of a house he was showing
He brought to me and gave it to me
it was a 40size MSS with a 40 size engine that the ring had cause a lot of damage to the engine liner which i believe caused the plane to come out of the sky
There was no damage to the airframe
We later assumed that the plane possibly may have come from a military base miles from where it was found
I refreshed the plane and put an OS 46 SF in her

I was becoming very friendly with the fellow who would become my trainner and hobby metor for life
My trainner had a 40 size Ugly Stik that in those early days was one of his most go to - to have a fun day at the field planes
He had a 51 como in his
Having the same interest in the same plane was a very bonding experience
The man could fly a Rock as they say
No matter what happened he would land the plane at our feet and he trimmed out all my planes on first flight for me until i was able to do so myself
We had the Love of Triump Motorcycles in common as well
He was an Engiishman

All size Stiks have been a Huge part of my 23 years of fllying RC more than most people - less than a few

Knowing the plane so very well i would recommend the largest engine to go to would be a 46- 51
The ST 51 being my engine of choice
Always built my first airframes with a flat wing and always 1/8 5 ply wing brace in the middle wing
Flat wing is the way my trainner flew his
He was flying for 30 years and in charge of the field and saftety when i first met him

I now build all my Stik wings with 1/2 inch anheadral and they fly the very best that way

You can just filp the wing upside down if it has diheadral
The plane tracks better and is always a very forgiving design

Truly one of the very very best flying 40 size airframes available and always a Fun Relaxing flying day at the field

I still have my original one in 2016 that i go in 1980 and have restored the plane completely freshening up at least 4 times i can recall
i like to keep it nice and ready to go
She is one of the Keepers in a 40 size airframe for me and i have basicly move into 60 size two cycle glo airframes

One of the few planes that was DESIGNED just to fly RC !!

I have tousands of flights on a 60 size Stik with two ASP 75 engines and a 61 SF engine i have worn out
Presently have an Os 75 AX in the plane
The engine is a real beast and more power than any other engine in its size i know of

You can view my planes on the left of this post under ---Galley


Enjoy your Stik RC experience

TangoBravo

Wow, Gene, what a little slice of history. It confirms a few details about the plane that I had heard but have never seen in print and especially in an article penned by Phil Kraft himself. In the photo it's easy to see that forward mounting positon of the vertical fin as compared with some of the other planes pictured in this thread. Thanks for the info.

Tom

lflf

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xx

TangoBravo

The story of the build isn't all that interesting. Simply, a young fella came out to our club's flying field one day in 1973 with a new, complete kit and two rolls of transparent blue Monokote. He was in need of money and wanted to sell his Ugly Stick kit and the covering for whatever he could get. At the time I was building and competing in 'scale' and had no interest in "one of the ugliest model airplanes I've ever seen". That's how I felt about the sticks. I had no use for the plane but after a while the kid was having no luck selling his plane he came back to me and essentially begged me to buy it. I offered him $25.00 and he jumped on it. I went home that day with a kit I had no interest in building. In spite of my disinterest in the plane I finally built it and when I was looking for a color scheme I decided to use the blue that came with the kit and paint the fuselage silver because I had a copy of Bach's Jonathon Livingston Seagull , first edition and the book jacket was silver and blue. Seemed only natural that I copied the illustrated seagull from a page in the book. Originally I had a decal that I made from decal paper that was on both sides of the vertical fin above the gull. "J L S Airline". Unfortunately the decals weren't compatible with glow fuel exhaust and I lost them. I did have a set of shark teeth from a Top Flite P-40 and stuck them on the nose. The right side finally peeled off and I lost it years ago but the left side is still on the plane.

Anyway, when the plane was ready to fly I hung a Lee, Veco 61 on the nose and one of my trusty Kraft radios and went to the field. The rest is history, almost 43 years of it. It might be ugly, but that old plane is still with me and flies today just as good as it did in 73.

Interesting side note about Richard Bach and the movie. He hated it and took legal action against the producer and studio. That's why you won't find the movie available today. The day I met him he talked about the movie and how much he disliked the way his story was handled. Later I heard that he had sued to have it pulled from circulation. I enjoyed the movie and thought it was done very well. R/C Modeler Magazine did a feature article on those radio controlled gulls. They were unpowered gliders and most of the flying and aerobatic scenes were filmed in Hawaii. They flew them out over a cliff that had some religious significance and if my memory serves me, was named after a priestess. Several of the gull gliders simply disappeared and were never recovered. The locals said they were "taken".

Tom

cjet

Ok Guys, Here is my story:

In 1983 Jim Hess of Family Toy and Hobby Center in Conway, AR was building Stik ARF's. If anyone knows of him or this Shop I would love to hear from them.

I have letters from my best friend in the Houston, TX area ordering one on 3-21-83. No e-mails or Internet orders then! This friend in Houston had gotten me involved in modeling and football during the summer between the 7[SUP]th[/SUP]and 8[SUP]th[/SUP] grades and we flew Control Line and then RC single channel during High School. We still fly and are both 72 years old now.

Anyway in 1988 he gave me this Stik with a K&B .61 and Futaba servos of the day. I still fly it and still have the same engine and servos. It is one special plane to me.

I have kept a paper flight log since1966 and maybe 10 years ago switched to a spreadsheet format. I still have prior paper records to enter but the Stik has 361 flights posted in the spreadsheet. Spreadsheets count very well with ease! One day I will get it all in the computer and know for sure but I guess it has at least that many more flights.

I loved the comment a page or so back when TangoBrovo said his Monokote and body were getting brittle. I can relate to that as well as the wrinkles on my body and Monokote. My Monokote has a lot of clear packing tape over splits that don't show much in these photos thank goodness.

This Stik is all balsa and a few inches larger than my Great Planes .40 size red Stik ARF. On my digital scales it is 5.97 pounds, so 6 pounds and the K&B .61 is very reliable and pulls it well. A great combination to me. Oh yes from the photos I still fly it on 72 MHz with a Futaba 7CAP. I am the only one now, but I have my pin up just in case!

Happy New Year to all.

TangoBravo

CJet, (does the 'c' stand for cobra?) I really enjoyed your narrative. Great story and your aileron linkage gave me a chuckle. I think all of us with these old 'sticks' should post some good close-ups of things that would make some of these youngsters shudder. The patches on my wings would be enough to scare the bee-jibbers out of most of them today.

Tom

ge3740

Cjet

they are the same but entirely different, that was nice.
A.B.

lflf

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My first Stik was actually a Midwest Bipe Stik, and it was my second RC airplane, after learning to fly with an Eaglet 50. I like bipes, but as a newbie, I recall that was quite a difficult build for me compared to my first plane, the Eaglet 50. After quite a bit of work on that plane, and some help from another modeler soldering the cabanes, I finally got it ready to go. I actually covered it twice, I didn't like my first covering job so I recovered it to look like an SE-5A. with Olive green, and some white letters and numbers etc. I also put a real cock pit in it, complete with a little turtle deck behind the cockpit. It was quite a crazy beginner kit bashing sort of thing. Power was an OS 40 FSR, a great engine.

I did soldier on, built many more airplane kits, learned to fly well, and now scratch build three or four planes every year. I can build a stik with no plans, just loft it up. My favorite size is more a less a quickie 500 format, 48-54 inch wing span, approximately 500 squares, tail dragger. I use a d-tube wing on mine, and don't even need a building board. The Stik design is so simple, the only tricky part is the rudder/fin, and with the internet these days you can just find a plan somewhere and enlarge it, and lift the outline right off the screen with some tracing paper. I'm not very good at following plans, I always end up with my own construction methods, use whatever wood and covering is handy, but the great thing about the Stik is-no matter how you make it, a Stik will fly great.

spaceworm

I have a Midwest Bipe Stik in the bare bones ready to cover. My favorite bipe is the SE-5a and following your lead, I now plan to cover my Bipe Stik like yours, with your permission. I will power it with a Saito 56.
My first scratch built plane was an HB 15 powered sorta Swizzle Stik made of foam core art board. Flew it with a Kraft KP-5c`. My first kit was a Eagle 63 with a K&B 40, later converted to a sorta Tiger, after a crash taking out the fuse top.

Seems like we lived in parallel universes, perhaps twins by different mothers?

Thanks for the idea of the SE-5a. Happy New year to You and Yours.

Sincerely, Richard

lflf

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It's a great flying bipe! Just remember to triple check everything, linkages, radio, battery, range, servo horn screws, etc, before your maiden flight, leave nothing to chance. It does look very cool in the Olive Green livery. A lot of work in that bipe (as in all bipes), but they look so cool.

cjet

I have one sort of like this waiting for repairs after I let a student fly it. I said to him that it was getting too far out and he replied "I know, I have been trying to get it back for a while" So much for casual instruction. Before and after photos attached. It was clear and 70 the day it went in the trees at dusk. The next day was 40 and drizzle. PVC pipes joined to make a 40 foot pole which did nearly all the damage. My friend is holding it and telling me I will never repair it. So far he is correct. Maybe this year because it did fly great. K&B .40 for power.

cjet

Nope, it stands for "cheap jet". Three of us got carried away with prop jets for about 10 years. The F-16 in the middle is by Cermark and has a Jett .90 glow made in Houston TX by Dub Jett. Twelve ounces of fuel is good for about 5 minutes. It is fast. There are at least 5 of them around here.

The sort of A-7s were scratch built by us and have fiberglass fuses with foam wings. I made the plug, all of us made the mold and laid them up. Eight of them were made. Mine is in front with the Eagle tail and of course a K&B .61. The one is back has a K&B .61 Twister with tuned muffler. They weighed from 8 to 8.5 pounds. They have full flying horizontal stabs and never a flutter because we counter balanced the stab.

But for a relaxing day and a lot of fun the Stiks are great. Hope no one is offended by the off track jet photo.

lflf

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That yellow and black stik looks great-and that linkage setup for the ailerons, very creative. I like the idea that you can just slap the servo on the outside of the wing, simpler is better. I've done it that way myself on some of those solid balsa wing biplanes such as the Honker Bipe, etc, but never occured to me to do it with a Stik.

UStik

Today is George Walker's birthday, so this is a good day to publish his movies as kind of congratulation!

In a new thread I announced his Early Sixties R/C 8mm movies, which I had kept back so far. Thought I let you know here as well.

George Walker sometimes flew with Phil Kraft and filmed him, or just himself flying. Above all, he filmed the maiden flight of Das Ugly Stik.

Ten short videos are at YouTube now where you can not only watch them but also write comments. Especially the experts are asked to contribute if they have any corrections or additions.

As a matter of course, the videos are not exactly perfect and especially their speed is not correct. Please see the information under each video and in the playlist.

Here you go.

lflf

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Holy cow, that video is sacred! You've come up with some great stuff, we're all in debt to George for letting you have those movies. Thanks to George for the videos, the Ugly Stik design-and Happy Birthday.

gene6029

It would be a fantastic find to get hold of a picture or video of the original "Box Fli" !....Gene

lflf

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With the vellum and new information-I'm thinking of trying to build a copy of the Box Fli myself. Those movies are great! Show you what it was like flying back in those days, especially the single channel ones. George is flying an Esquire in one of those movies. I had one of those planes and they were good planes, but you were always flying on the ragged edge of a crash, and most landings ended up tumbling, just like in the movie. I remember it well, and hand flipping props on those balky engines, not to mention the marginally reliable electronics. . .we really had to go through a lot to get one good flight in.

I can see why George Walker was nervous about flying the prototype Stik and let JIm Jensen do it. So much work in that model. All those little touches took a lot of time, and I'm not sure if they had plastic covering back then-it may have been painted (does anyone know?) The other thing not seen in the maiden flight movie is directly to JIm Jensen's right is a gun range which came right up to the end of the runway, so landings could get hairy. The fence you see might be the rear of the gun range as he taxis out. In my day at Whittier Narrows (1986) there was a cinderblock brick wall about 6 feet high that you need to make sure you got over on landings. Engine failure or just undershooting the runway could be a disaster, smack into the wall or needing to be let into the gun range to retrieve your model. The gun range also had an aluminum awning over part of it that you could hit. I don't think the awning is there anymore. I read somewhere that some enterprising individuals removed the whole awing in the middle of the night and made off with it! Quite a task.

ge3740

i need to check my 8mm film, it may be stuck together, is the movie a secret ???

lflf

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Here's the link to George Walker's 8mm movies with the maiden flight of the first Das Ugly Stik: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...P11pgA5gL8-xun

UStik

As to the gun range, George told me that the maiden flight was at the San Gabriel Valley R/C field, and I understand that is Whittier Narrows. He also told me about the gun range, which is still there on Google Maps/Earth (see here), if I'm not mistaken. He remembers that someone once flew his model over it (I didn't understand if it was intentionally or not) and that there was a hole in the model when it came back.

The Ugly Stik prototype was covered with red-dyed silk and painted with clear dope, hence the translucent wing.

But George didn't remember the name/type of his single-channel model, so it is great to hear about it. I just suppose you mean the silver/blue model in the video where he is flying with Dick Kidd. Thanks for the information!

lflf

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That is indeed the blue and silver model George was flying, the Midwest Esquire. I know that plane very well. It was a great single channel design, I posted a link to the plans on youtube. I spotted two other Esquires in the movies of Phil flying his biplanes, though one might have been a Lil Esquire, it looked a bit smaller. I think Esquires were so common back then because they were one of the models that was used as a "trainer" in their day before multi-channel became common.

As far as the gun range, the satellite view posted shows it clearly-funny but I haven't been back the Whittier Narrows field in 41 years, and I pictured it in my mind as the brick wall coming right smack up against the end of the runway-which I can see it does not, I guess I was exaggerating it in my mind. Anyway, plenty of planes still managed to fall into the gun range or hit the wall or awnings, it was always a hassle having it there.

UStik

Thanks again, I didn't see your comment on YouTube, didn't get a message from them as for your other comments. Weird...

Gene, there might be even films shot by Phil Kraft himself, at least he is shown with a camera in one of George's movies. But I think it's unlikely that he shot the test bed, and even if he did it's unlikely that they show up. So when I'm done with it I will record a flight with my Box-Fli simulator model. It'll be a surrogate but, as they say, better than nothing at all.

GREG DOE

ifif, Silk and dope was the standard covering material of the day. For those that don't remember, shortly after Monokote was introduced, Jim Jensen added spar webbing to the kit. Film covered wings were failing. This webbing consisted of 8 pieces of 1/8" plywood that was used in the rib bays, out to the end of the doublers. Silk added some "skin" strength, that was lost with film covering.

HighPlains

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I used to race Formula One and Whittier Narrows was one of the races where landings were a bit more challenging. Unlike sport models, we alway landed dead stick, with planes that were clean enough they can glide for a very long distance. I usually tried to make my approach parallel to the wall and then curve the plane to the left to align with the runway. Making it more fun was the runway was down hill slightly in that direction, and off in the not too great a distance was a major highway. Lots of great memories from there.

spaceworm

Back in CL combat days, the silk covering provided a convenient carrying bag for the shattered balsa remains of a heated three way battle. Often the engine would still be attached to the tank and the bag could contain everything to take home. The leadout wires made a good handle.