Well here's the stick.

Double boxed. That's good. Fedex still manage to beat it up pretty good, even though it has a Fragile sticker on the sides. The plane came unscratched. I ordered it on Tuesday the 15th, he said it'll be shipped the next day, the 16th. I called on the 17th because it didn't come in the next day. Houston and San Angelo is like 5 hours apart. He said it shipped today and was sorry about it. It did not come in Until monday the 21st. The shipping label says Nov. 18th on there. It didn't ship till friday and also it did not get shipped from him. It came from Katy, TX. ***! Oh well I'm glad I got it.

So anyway, double boxed, came in perfect, good.

upon inspecting the plane, it looks to be laser cutted. Even though it was laser cut, some of it was crooked. I think the builders were slacking, other wise, it's 95% good.

The covering is wierd. It's tacked on really good. There were only a couple of wrinkles. I tried to straighten it out with a heat gun and it just kinda wrinkled even more. wierd. I'll recover it with ultracote another day.

The hardware is usable. pretty much all the hardware are good quality. Better than the Pheonix Model brand that Tower Hobbies carry. I did not use the clevises though.. I used my own great planes celevises with the fuel tubing over it to keep it closed. It came with a tail wheel collar with some cheapo flat head screw that stripped out. Good thing I had a screw to replace it. It fell apart after I landed. Even with metric tools I couldn't get the hex tools to fit in the wheel collars for the main wheels. Other then that, it was just the wheel collars, the engine bolts, and the celvises that are needed to be replaced.

Missalignment issues. The blind nuts that are for the wing hold down are crooked. The person who built the plane and put them blind nuts in crooked musta been a retard. It's really tricky to get all four screws in while at the field. But I've gotten used to it. A little bend here and there kinda helped the blind nut scraighten up. Not perfectly straight but the screws go down now. The frame looked kinda crooked. Even though it's laser cut. It's a little off but nothing major. The LE of the wing does not line up with the front of wing saddle. One side is close, the other has a 1 mm gap. But that's nothing. I wish they had two dowls in the front and two bolts in the rear. Would make things much easier. But 4 bolts is way stronger! The engine mount it came with, the holes do not align with the blind nuts on the firewall. I just dremeled the hole inwards a bit so I can move the screws around. Well that worked and it fit. But it also did not fit my engine. My engine was a bit too big for it. Wierd?? So I just dremeled the side of the mount to fit the engine, drilled the holes and bolted it down. The 3mm bolts that it came with are too big for the engine mount holes. So I bought some 6-32 screws, lock washers, and lock nuts. good to go..

I pretty much did not use the stupid instructions. They skipped alot of steps. I just looked through it to see what was going on. Tossed it in the box and went on building on my own. It's pretty easy to build without the instructions after you've built a few planes. First thing first, I used PU glue for everything. First was the wing joiner and wings. Wetted all surfaces that were to be glued and spreaded PU glue on it. I put that aside to wait for to dry in the sun behind the glass sliding door. Heat really helps cure time on PU glue. The I reinforced the firewall. It as only held on by the two sides of the frame. The bottom had a gap. So I filled it with PU glue. I tacked a bunch of the edges inside the fuse with the glue just for some extra reinforcements. I did put some on the wing mounts where the blind nuts are. Those are a must to reinforce. The H stab was glued on with 5 minute epoxy then went and reinforced with PU glue from the inside. I used the epoxy to hold the H stab on the fuse. I put plenty of PU glue on the inside. So when I slide down the Rudder, it also foamed up and glued that down too. Good deal! All hinges were hinged with the CA hinges it came with. Hinge slots were precut so that was nice. Torque rods for the ailerons were preinstalled. The fuel tank was usable. The only one that would fit. I'm thinking about getting the Dubro shapable tank with a heatgun, so I can get more flight time. Acutally flight time really doesn't bother me.

So, wings glued, reinforcemnts, H and V stabs installed, engine mount installed.

Blind nuts came in the package for the landing gear. I just measured, marked, drilled and put in the blind nut. screwed the landing gear on with the hardware. It came with a plywood block for the tail wheel. I used 5 minute epoxy to glue that on and mounted the tail wheel. Tail wheel goes in first, then hinge the rudder because the tail wheel wire goes inside the rudder.

Servo placements are a direct drop in. The easy part. The aileron part is wierd. YOu have to cut out the hole yourself. once you do, you notice it was laser cut out for you already. I guess they were lazy to fully cut it out. it came with a plywood plate that goes on top of that. 5 minute epoxy. Servo on top of that, linkages.. done.

CG:
Well,, I guess the chinese were too busy working on translating the manual to english, they forgot the CG! So I looked around for some stick planes online and their CG's are from 3 1/2" to 4" Mine measures near 3 3/4". I'm happy that my plane balanced out with no weights.. Good!

I'm using:

-Super Tigre .51 Ringed engine
-11x5 Master Airscrew
-Futaba S3151 Digitals for Elevator, and Throttle
-Hitec HS-475HB Karbonite Gears, for the Aileron and Rudder
-600mah NiCad
-148DF Futaba Micro Reicever (Great RX, Fits anywhere)
-Home Made switch Jack
-10% power master fuel

I added a Switch Jack instead of a on/off switch. No moving parts, Easy to work with. Pull out the jack turns it on, put it back in the socket, off. The jack has a charging lead also... good stuff! We use this on our slope gliders.

I had to bend the landing gear inwards because of prop clearance issues. You can see in the photo, I have two fingers under the prop. Some landings I did hit the prop on the runway.. But it's OK

Flying this thing!:

Takes off nicely, and it goes straight up. I'm thinking about putting larger aileron stock on it later. Roll rate isn't so fast, but it's good. The plane is very stable. Rolls nicely. Loops are really tight with no snapping. Inverted flight with just a touch of down. Landing is so simple. Snap rolls are fun. Harriers are fun too..lol. No knife edges. It went all over the place when I tried.. I'll try again next time..

The ailerons need the hingeline sealed. Mine was fluttering at straightaways on half throttle. I'm going to work on that this week. Gotta get some tape. Maybe even go with two servos for the ailerons in the future..

I know I skipped alot of things, but those things are just the basics of the build.

I had this radio gear in a Pheonix Models Giles 202, and I'm glad I tore it off to put on this stick. The Stick is one of my favorite planes now.

$79.99 for this ARF, it's a pretty good deal. You get what you pay for.

I also would recommend this plane to beginners. It seems to fly alot better than trainers. This plane is a trainer too but, handles the ground alot better. I've personally never flown a trainer before. I started out with that Giles 202. The stick and the Trainers land differently. The trainers won't set down. They just keep going, making the trainer have to land a few more times. Our landing strip is short, so it's good for the stick. comes down and slows down nicely without bumping around. Someday I would like to train someone on this plane. It's a winner!

Enjoy!

-Tomi