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Project REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BIG STICK PLANE!!!

The 2007 USA F3A Stick Plane Contest is in "Turbo Promo" mode, with the upcoming Weak Signal's Toledo Show beginning at the end of the week. The "Team Promotional Department" will be on the ground beginning Friday afternoon debuting the complete collection of Team Apparel and the Official 2007 USA F3A Team "Giant" Stick Plane!!!

The attached photos show the mondo size, fully functional stick plane built using the exact drawings (you can down load from an earlier RCU post on this thread, www.nsrca.com or the soon to be turned "on" Team website: www.f3a.us) except they were enlarged to the following dimensions:

Wingspan: 31 1/4"
Fuselage: 33" without stick, 39" w/stick (1 meter or so...)
Weight: 260 grams ready to fly (?), 9.1 oz.
Plane design: Piedmont Models Focus II

There is NOT ONE GRAM of carbon fiber, honey comb, kevlar or fancy stuff...fuselage is 1/2" foam board with the wing and stab cut from 1/4" foam board using an Xacto knife with #11 blade. I had the copy store also enlarge a copy of the P-07 and F-07 "Aresti" drawings which were bonded to the completed components using spray contact adhesive (Duco). The stick is a 1/2", space-age wooden dowel with a 1 1/2" wooden ball, glued on the end. The parts were assembled using foam safe ZAP (green label), the fuzz was removed with a sanding block with 120 grit sand paper wet or dry...dry! Just like a foamy, the edges were taped using clear tape, to protect them from improper use (my kids have already "flown" in the living room) and the clear paint.

BadBrad Graphics was nice enough to spend an hour this afternoon, "tricking" it out, prior to my installation of the black canopy using vinyl and the Trim Monokote, chrome spinner.

A cheap clear art store high gloss spray paint, which the label said was safe for "foam and paper"...it was, gave it a little more pizzazz (Troy and Arch would say it will just add weight (See: "Zeque Build Glow Powered: Fuel Proofing"). All of the goodies were purchased at (HA!...you thought I was going to say...) Michael's Craft Store for less than $20 and the enlargements were about $18 at an Office Max Copy Center while I waited. The entire project including shopping, trip to BadBrad's and the construction was less than 5 hours.

I hope to take dozens and dozens of "Grab and Grin" photos in Toledo and share the story of the wonderful world of precision aerobatics and the 2007 USA F3A Team and beyond...I believe it is an excellent tool to explain the manuevers (drawn on the plane) and since it is about a meter long, describe the length to be about 2x...

A "Builder's Kit" will NOT be available nor will a RCU build thread titled: "Stick Plane Hand Powered" be created...


Rusty Dose
Team Futaba, YS Parts and Service
2007 USA F3A Team Fund Raising Coordinator