Has anyone been flying the Lucky Stik?

I ordered one from the dealer and there is about a 2 month wait
from the manufacturer.

Has anyone been flying it? Any mods done? How's the quality?

Rich

I bought one for a buddy of mine for his second airplane - very responsive and good flying plane even with an old K&B 40.

Contact Warren at
[email protected]
- got a really great deal on it, and he has them in stock.

p.s. Plane was built by my buddy - his first RC kit building experience (even if it was an ARF!) strictly by the instructions, with no mods.

Some of the hardware was not to my liking, so we replaced some of the clevis and wire connectors and phillips headed screws, built better control rods and used quick links and socket headed allen screws.

Thanks for the info lynn,
I e-mailed your buddy at the hobby shop.

Rich

I have a highly modified Lucky Stick that I got several years ago when they still made them as ARC's (and I wish they still did!). I made mine a tail dragger to eliminate the weight and drag of the nose gear. To do so I substituted some Klett composite main gear and moved them forward of the CG and added a small ply plate on the inside floor of the fuse to distribute the loads to the walls of the fuse. I then added an after-market tail wheel mount and ran the tiller up through the stab and along the rear of the fuse to the bottom edge of the rudder.
Then I took the dihedral out of the wing (The old original Midwest Sweet Stick had a flat wing). I also made channels through the foam core of each wing half for servo leads and added a seperate aileron servo installed in the bottom of each wing half. This was all done before glueing the wing halves together. I then used some light fiberglass cloth to glass the center section of the wing. I also converted the wing to a bolt-on design using four 1/4-20 nylon bolts. On the front and trailing edge of the wing, this necessated adding thin ply plates on top of the wing, through which the bolts pass. This distributes the flight loads across the wing surface and to the fiberglass underneath, so that the bolts don't pull through. Obviously, I also had to add hold-down blocks in the fuse for these screws to go into.
Finally, I decided to add a built-up balsa cowl from the firewall, to the True Turn spinner to really add a little more "Eye Candy" and streamlining to my design I dubbed the "Slick Stick". It started out with a special K&B Model 4050 ABC .40 with tuned muffler and flew quite well, but never being one satisfied with good performance (POWER...Need more POWER !!!) I later swapped that engine out for a hotter K&B "Screaming" .48. This engine eventually revealed the one weak point I have found on the plane when it pulled the firewall partially loose in flight (It IS one stout engine!). I was able to re-glue the firewall, and added some dowl pins through the fuse sides to make it stay put! Oh, I also made the fuel tank compartment more accessable by removing the top planking in the tank area and changing it to a hatch held on by 4 small screws.

Phew, I think that about covers it. I have digital picture if someone would like to see what can be done with the Luck Stick, but they are too large to post here. Just send me your e-mail if you would like to see them...

Lee

Thanks Lee,

Now I have a one-up on what needs to be done
when I get this model. Just one question, this model
has a 51" wing span with 600 sq. in. wing area, how much power do I need? I was planning on putting in an OS .40. Is this enough?

Rich

An OS .40 will fly it fine as long as all you want is a good performing sport plane, with no bad habits. However, if you want to scream around like its tail is on fire, with unlimited vertical, you might wabt to look at something more in the .45-.50 range. It all just depends on what kind of flying you are after...

Have fun,
Lee

I had a Lucky Stik years ago...it was the ARC version...a good flier, and pretty durable too. I don't know about how they are now, but back then it was a foam core wing with balsa sheeting...and that wing took a lot of abuse!!!

I built mine without dihedral, and made it a flat wing, which flew great. The only big problem I had was at about 20 or 25 flights my firewall came unglued...I replaced it with a good piece of 1/4" ply (the installed firewall was only 1/8"), with triangle stock re-enforcment on the back...no problem after that. I ran an old Irvine .51 with mine, and it was a runner. I'd still have the plane, but I gave it to my brother when I was moving and didn't have room for it....

Here's a pic of my Hanger 9 Super Stick...I hate the sticky covering...no way to patch it with iron on covering...flies decent, but wish I had picked up the Ultra Stick instead... :stupid: