Hi,

I would like to know if anyone out there owns this plane? I have a few buddies in my club who scratch built their own. I figured this plane at cedar hobbies for $80 bucks that is already an arf, would be the price of building my own. It adds up if I build my own and chasing after parts to get it together.

I would also like to know if this plane is fully aerobatic and capable of highspeed flying. The guys in my club pretty much modified theirs to fly faster but it can also fly pretty slow for landings.

Also, whatabout the quality and such.. Anything bad with this plane??

Thanks!
-Tomi

Sticks, in general, are not really considered high speed planes. They are boxy with a thick airfoil. I've seen quite a few versions of Sticks at the field and they have all been pretty aerobatic. I've never seen the Cedar Hobbies version, as far as I know, but it looks exactly like every other stick I have seen.

I thought about getting the Cedar Hobbies 60 size stick, but went with the Great Planes Big Stik 60 instead. I got the GP for 124.99 after coupon codes and got free shipping. The CH plane would have been about $120 including tax (I live in TX) and shipping so I went with the company I'm more familiar with.

I read somewhere that the CH planes need tri-stock added to the firewall/fuselage joint, but that seems to be common with many ARF models.

For the price, if I was looking for a 40 size stick, I'd give it a shot.

Thanks for the info, the guys here with their sticks fly theirs crazy. All sorts of aerobatics. It's really stable. They can be pretty quick to. I haven't been around Glow planes much, but I thought for the airfoil and the design of this plane, it's pretty quick for what it is.

with tax and shipping, it'll be $92 for the CH stick. I was thinking I should just spend more and get me a H9 ultrastick. Which will set me back on purchasing that later later later in the future. Would be nice if I can get one before Xmas but it won't happen. My Raptor 50 helicopter burned a big hole in my pocket. It's great to have but dang, they're expensive when you crash them just right. lol.

I'll keep watching..

-Tomi

They'll definitely go fast enough to get in trouble pretty quick.

My brother has an Ultra Stick 40 with OS 70 four stroke. He installed the quad flaps to play with crow mixing. He rarely uses crow and says, if he had it to do over, he would just install the full length ailerons and save the weight and expense of the two extra servos you need for the quad flap setup.

He likes the US40 a lot. The US40 is $130 from Horizon. No tax, but they charge a lot for freight. The hobby shops around here sell for the same price as Horizon but we pay sales tax. Out the door it would be 140.71.

That is 50% more than the CH Stick. For that much price difference I'd consider it. Because of super saver club and a gooddiscount code I got my GP stik for only 5 dollars more than the same size CH stick.

I've been reading over the specs on that stick.40 off of Cedar Hobbies. 6-7 pounds doesn't seem right for this type of plane. I wonder if it's a typo.

I hope my super tiger .51 engine will go good with this plane if I do purchase it..

-Tomi

Weight seems to be a tricky thing with planes. What seems overly heavy for one is fine for another.

Tower lists the Big Stik 40 at 6.5 to 7 pounds, which I assume is flying weight. Greatplanes.com lists it at 5.3 pounds. I wonder if GP is only weighing what's in the box or if the Tower site has a typo.

Horizon lists flying weight for the US40 as 5 to 6 pounds.

Randomly looking at the advertised weights for 40 size aerobatic planes they seem to range from under 4 pounds up to 7. A lot list a 5.5 to 6.5 pound range.

My brother's US40 with OS-70 Surpass weighs just under 6 pounds. My Astro Hog with OS-70 Surpass weighs 7.75 pounds. They aretotally different planes but the engine seems to be a perfect match for both.

Tomi,
Good news! We went to Bomber Field and the rep for Cedar Hobbies was there selling these kits. He had a "show special" on the 40 size Stick and one of our flying buddies bought one for $65 bucks.

Here's the good part for you: I loaned my buddy my "collector" Super Tiger G-21 series .46 (Old style small case with the ST flow thru muffler) to put on his newly aquired Stick. It weighs a tad over 5 lbs. and goes like a scalded cat on this old engine.

(Collector motor?............ I got it when I was in high school in the late 60's. It came in a beautiful new, unflown R/C Nobler, scratch built, tissue and dope finish, etc. Some old dude brought it into the hobby shop to sell. When I told him it was the prettiest monkote finish I'd ever seen, he kinda snapped at me and told me it was 30 coats of hand-rubbed dope! (Monokote had only been out for about 6 months) I told him it was probably way too much plane and cost for me to handle. He asked me how much I had on me and all I had was $100 dollars in lawn-mowing money. He asked me for the money; I got me a new plane with one of his custom motors and we both went away smiling. The old dude? George Aldrich, Supe Tiger expert, designer of the Nobler control-line plane and one of the nicest modelers you'd ever meet!

Get the plane. Put your .51 on it and go bore some holes in the sky. I checked this one over and the landing gear mount and firewall seem to be well glued. The green covering appeared to be good quality stuff. I'd move the aluminum gear forward and bend it downward for a little more prop clearance. (Using an APC 11-5) Plane jumps off and moves smartly about with this combo. Lands slow. (Come on....It's a STIK!!) Enjoy!
Terry
Conroe, Texas

Sweet thanks for the info. I guess he built it as a tail dragger? I want to do a tri wheel, never owned a tri-wheel plane before.

It looks like this plane will be on the list.

Thanks again.
-Tomi

If you want to grow with your skills and move into some 3D flying, spend a little more and get the U. Stick. It has larger control surfaces including a large, balanced rudder. If this is a first or second plane, it might make contact with the earth a lot and be a learning curve for you though, so saving $ on the Ceadar Creek Stick makes some sense.

Ernie

ernie,, dunno if you read most of what I posted, I currently fly a Phoenix Giles 202. And this is my first plane. I didn't learn with a trainer. I wanted something more stable and very aerobatic. The Giles is just a sports flyer type of plane. Fun but too heavy for my taste. So I'm looking into the simple Stick design type of plane. Couple of friends have them and these things fly great. I want one!! The US40 is nice, if i'm paitient enough I will get it. Thanks for the headsup..

-Tomi

Hey Tomi, I'm sure you will have lots of fun and learn a lot no matter which plane you choose. That's the name of the game! Best of luck to you and keep us posted.

Ernie

Ernie, Thankyou for your kind words.

I flew alot of gliders, slope soaring that is, and recently moved to another town without a slope to fly on. Knowing that I will move to this town in the future, I bought a DLG, Discus Launched Glider. So I fly it at a flat field and catch thermals. I wanted something cool for it like an Altimeter. Got one when it came out and worked great. But then I don't use it anymore because I really don't care for how high I go anymore. Sold that and man I think it's getting very close to getting one of these sticks. I think I'm going to order one up sometime in the middle of this week. I will keep you guys who are intrested in this plane POSTED!

-Tomi

Hi Tomi, I started out with hand launch gliders too! I have to say though, that unless you have some experience with the powered jobs, be sure and get started on the right foot with a trainer type of plane. There are solid reasons for doing that.

Ernie

I'm against the Trainer planes. The giles 202 was my trainer. I got a gallon of flight off of that thing. It was fun. Until I slapped on the cowling and had overheating problems with my engine. When the engine died, I deadsticked it in the grass and it pulled out my landing gear block. I need to fiberglass it on so it won't break off anymore. But since I bought that Stick 40, I'm just gonna tear the gear off of the giles and put it on my stick. I'll probably end up selling the giles for really cheap.

I also fly my Raptor 50 helicopter. That was my trainer. I had a couple of molded gliders. One for slope racing and the other was a F3J thermal duration glider. Those are all gone becuase I moved into a apartment. That money when into my heli. heck all my money went into the heli.

So basically, it doesn't matter what plane I get. I know I'm able to fly it.

Oh I also fly electrics too. Just built me a flat foamy jet and wounded my own CD rom type of motor. Man those things are fun. The guys at my club said I'm a crazy pilot. They can't tell which way i'm flying.. lol..

Anyway.. I ordered the Stick. It's coming in this Thursday. I will post pictures as I go.

-Tomi

You have lots of experience so have fun! Keep us posted!

Ernie

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

Here's the wing...

Fuse and landing gear

tail surfaces and tail gear

Engine and prop clearance....

Switch Jack installed on the side of the fuse.

Pull out the Jack, On

Insert the Jack, Off and also has a charging lead on the jack..

Simple and no moving parts..

Hi Tomi, looks like you did a nice job! Does it really come out 6 to 7 lb. like they advertise???

Ernie

Ernie,, Thanks,,, I won't know the weight until I find a scale. But it is lighter than I thought. I think it's right around 5 1/2...

I am building this plane myself now..have had a few of the problems you had such as the blind nuts for the motor mounts not aligning and the engine not fitting in them...this is the first plane i have built and have had plent of issues along the way as the directions are about useless..i am almost finished but one thing i was wondering was with the servo install for the wing..did ya have to notch out for the servo wire..even after cutting it out it doesnt quite fit...thanks for the info.

All standard size servos are not actually all the same size. It is common to have to open up the holes a bit and to make a notch for the wire end. Just keep taking small amounts off until the servo will pop in there. Best of luck finishing it up!

Ernie