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Old 01-09-2009, 02:49 PM
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Spacemonkey71
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Default Great Planes Big Stik 40 -dihedral?

Well, I've been off on a "plane buying spree" I'm even more glad that my wife doesn't know ! My 1st buy was a ParkZone Corsair + glue + 3 tri-blade props = ~ $300; The next one (2 days later) was a Great Planes Big Stik 40. I've already got 1 ugly stik that flies (from ebay - super-cheapo model for $40), another Stik that is hand made and needs to be doped and painted (i'm absoultely terrified of flying this plane! it's TOO beautiful to even CONSIDER a possible crash... ) and now I've got the Big Stik 40.

I plan on mounting a K&B .45 on it; it's an old engine, but they run like a champ (if you stick to using 10% "pink juice" in them! Put 15% "green death" in it and POOF! The engine beats itself into a stupor....).

Here's my question: The plane can be built WITH or WITHOUT a pronounced dihedral. I'm not a super-pilot *yet!* so I can see the advantages of the dihedral giving me a way to level the plane out basically "hand's off" style; but at the same time, these planes were originally built with wings having Zero dihedral and they were touted as being a beautiful flier in the "mild" setting and a hoot-and-a-holler with the "wild" setting. What would some of you guys do in this situation? Play it safe and build it with a few degrees of dihedral or go hell-for-leather with no dihedral and learn some super cool aerobatics?

(yes, I know you CAN do aerobatics with a dihedral wing, but it's not as responsive as the no-dihedral wing)