RE: ultra stick as a second plane
Hay Conk,
I pulled my Ultra Stick out of moth balls and I'm going to fly it tomorrow. It has't flown in a while...and it's got to be at least five years old, with well over 150 flights on it. I use it to break in my engines...from .40's ~ .90's. Yep.... I broke in my S.T. G90 on this airframe, and it has a few hanger rashes, dings and other things done to it...but it still fly's up a storm...hard landings and all.
I put a few mods to the model, and there are a few pictures to show the mods. One, I now fly have a K&B .61 Twister installed (great engine for this model), I located my rudder and elevator servo's to the rear of the airframe, and stuck them outside for easy maintenance. Since this is a kick aroun model...who cares what sticks out into the wind. I used a plywood former around each servo in the tail (3/32 aircraft grade plywood) to stiffen up the servo attachment area, and ran straight wire to the rudder and elevator.
I also placed a thick 1/8" aircraft grade plywood inside the model, and under where the landing gear attaches to the fuse. This is a weak area of the model, and this mod is bullet proof, for your less then squeeker landings. I also installed larger wheels, and I needed these for my larger engine/prop clearence issues.
I also installed a more robust tail wheel assembly, and hooked up the stearing with a simple wire. I've inclosed pictures so you can see for yourself what I did.
Sticks fly with the best of them...and a great all around model to play with. Low stress...and if you stuff it in...its cheap to replace.
I hope this helps you...and I did install the four servo wing mod...but will eventually replace the four servo's with just a two servo wing, and use flaperons. All them freaken wires and weight...and I never needed the extra two servo's in the wing.
Soft Landings always,
Bobby of Maui