hey guys,
what`s everyones opinion on a us 40 as a second plane? i posted this question 5 or 6 yrs ago when i first started flying & alot of people thought it was a great second plane. i`v had 5 since then. well i suggested it to a club member who asked me about a second plane. when i left another member who was there when i made the suggestion told him not to get it. as it was not a good second plane. this fella has one but he thinks the throttle stick is a off & on switch so it`s all over the place. i still stand firm on my suggestion. what do you guys think. the club member just got his key [ 3 take offs & landings]. it didn`t take him long to do it because he flys small electrics. i didn`t want to see him get a second plane he would quickly outgrow. he wants to get into aerobatics. thanks,
conk

oops wrong forum. can a moderator put this in the arf forum??
conk

I bought an ultra stick as my retrainer after a 15 year break and never regretted it. I would recommend it to anyone. I''ve heard others say that eveyone should own a stick.

An Ultra Stick 40 was my second plane and it was great. Easy to fly, easy to land and when I was ready to progress, it progressed with me. I learned aerobatics and gained my confidence with this plane. Also the flaps with crow was a gas. An Ultra Stick 60 is in my present fleet and I love to take it out every now and then. Still a lot of fun.

I had a Big Stik 40 as my second plane and I still love it.
If you aren''t ready for a Stik as your second plane then you should spend a bit more time with your trainer.
Easy to land and gentle on low rates.

My experiences with the Twist and the Tango indicate that the Ultra Stik would have relaxing and forgiving flight characteristics. Smooth, predictable, stable, aerobatic. With several flap options available at the toss of a switch, I am sure one can come up with a lot of very interesting experiments with this airframe. The fact that the Ultra Stik is a high-wing as opposed to a mid or low-wing gives the tendancy to self-correct more during flight. Being a mid-wing, the Twist is very easy to fly and stalls are easy to correct (for example, comming out of a snap with full elevator during a stunt), but you do have to be on the sticks at all times. The Twist is considerd by many to be an excellent choice for a second plane, with rates dialed down. With the Ultra Stik having better stability as a high-wing, it''s likely easier to fly than the Twist, and the Twist is one of the easiest and most forgiving planes I''ve flown besides the Hobbico Superstar. If the Twist is easy and forgiving, that should make the advantages of the Ultra Stik more obvious, which further confirms my vote.

NorfolkSouthern

Hay Conk,
It is a good choice for a second airplane. It''s forgiving, aerobatic, and tough as any trainer you can buy. I have built these ugly sticks for years and have a Ultra Stick .40 with a K&B .61 Twister. Nice engine airfame combo...and I broke in my Super Tiger G .90 on the same model. The airframe is bullet proof, strong and with a few mods, right nice. There are several threads on the model...and look them up for all the trick mods.
Soft Landings always,
Bobby of Maui

It''s great for a 2nd plane and probably great as a first plane really. I''ve got an Ultra Stick 60 and I fly it all the time in strong crosswinds, when you can''t fly other planes. The Ultra Stick gets me in the air when everyone else is on the ground...I will always have a stick, it will keep you in the air, give you more "Stick" time...LOL

The Ultra Stik is a perfect second plane.

No doubt about it.

Righto!!

thanks alot guys,
i knew it was a good second plane. i fly 3d now but i want to get another stick for windy days.
thanks again,
conk

An Ultra Stick is the PERFECT second airplane. No other plane has that great of qualities and is still forgiving. Everyone should have at least one stick during their lifetimes. Just reinforce the landing gear block ten times over. That's one of its flaws. Its other flaw is that it inspires confidence. I've flown it in wind so bad I had to land backwards, and could hover the plane horizontally. I just dropped the flaps and it was literally going backwards when it landed. Stalls are nearly non-existent, it's simply awesome.

Sorry I didn't read all the posts BUT I think the US40 is one of the best planes you can buy, I have all kinds of planes, sport, scale, 3D, and I love the US40 the best. Saito 82, no flaps, really a waste of time and servos. It can do almost every trick, and is a super honest plane. Plus if you hit the ground, $129.00 and your ready to go again.

P.S. I'm also an instructor, we also use the US40 as a trainer, you just have to remember the wings are flat, and it won't come back.

I'l echo...echoo...echooo, echoooo by saying "Nuthin' beats a stik"!

I flew a 60 size foe my second model and it was great. I still have it and always take it when the wind is blowing hard. I will fly it when nothing else is up. It can handel a lot of wind. They are simple airplanes and easy for a novice to maintain and really learn how to fly after your trainer.

Couldn't agree more with everybody. I've had all three Ultra Sticks (40, 60, 120) I still have the 120 and love to fly it. My son flys it now. It is his 2nd plane. My 2nd plane was a US 60. Couldn't make a better choice.

Thanks
Barry

I have a Big Stik 60. I have flown trainers a lot, and had an Astro Hog for a year. The stabilizer flew off of the Hog and the fuselage was destroyed in the crash. I still have the wing. My stik is balanced slightly nose heavy and it is much more responsive than my trainers or the Hog. It seems like an animal compared to the other planes I've flown.

My brother got a Big Stik 40 as his second plane. We crashed his trainer shortly after he soloed. He tried to get an Avistar but no LHS had one and they were on backorder at Tower. He thought the Stik was a huge step up from the trainer. He had to move the CG forward and dial the control throws down for a good while. Admittedly he probably was not ready for a second plane when it was thrust upon him. He's lucky he didn't crash it on the first flight.

All any of this really says is that your club member needs to be VERY comfortable flying his first plane before moving to the Ultra Stick.

I installed the flaps, I'd recommend it. With flaps, you can do kite hovering into the wind, which helps you practice stick and airplane control/reflexes...or just use them as normal for landing...and they can be used on takeoff for short field takeoff and crosswind days, to takeoff into the wind across the runway. The plane can do a lot of things, aerobatics, hovering, etc...not good with the knife edge though, no fuselage...

Ultra Sticks and Big sticks are different! They don't fly the same, the US has a flat wing and will NOT self recover. Ya just need to remember that when you pick which one you get.

If you need self recovery( a lot of dihedral) , then stay with a high wing trainer, once you are away from a high wing trainer, you aren't going to have self recovery anyway.

The Ultra Stik will have more self-recovery than a low wing. Considerably less than with a trainer, yes, but the tendency was very noticeable when I compared a Twist to my Tango (the Twist is a mid-wing, the Tango a high-wing). Both of these planes share the same wing design and have similar control surfaces. My Tango was more sensitive than the Twist on the controls, however, and that may have been my setup. I would recommend the Ultra-Stik before I would a low-wing as a second plane, because even a low-wing "trainer" such as the Sig Four-Star, Tiger 2, or Rapture 40 is going to require more airspeed, a longer takeoff run, and a shallower approach when landing. They have a thinner airfoil, higher center of gravity, and narrower wing cord. These issues reduce stability, and increase snap capability at lower speeds. There are plenty of low-wing crash stories, and many are due to complacency, when the pilot least expected it.

The high-wing in general just allows for a larger margin of error. If there is any discomfort about handling a trainer easily through all phases of flight, then the best bet would be to consider a semi-symmetrical high wing such as the Arrow or Avistar first, then perhaps move on to the more responsive Ultra Stik or low-wing as a third plane.

NorfolkSouthern

thanks alot for all the replys,
i knew they were real good in the wind & real stable but i never even thought about the high wing vs low wing thing. the club member i was talking about just bought a 4 star 40. i know alot of people like them as a second plane but i think the US is a better second if for no other reason than it will slow down more & not balloon around as much on landing. the US was the first plane i ever landed. it was so much easier to land than my trainer. i set it up w/ quad flaps. i had the mix on a 3 position switch. low position was flaps tied to rons for full span ailerons, mid. pos. was no mix & up pos. was ele. to flaps [ flaps up with ele. up] crow or butterfly was on a seperate switch. i bought a 9c trans so i could do all the mixes. the only problem was i had to use the glider program to do crow so i lost my throttle cut. which was a small price to pay. thanks again guys,
conk

The Ultra Stick was a great second plane for me. I was actually thinking of upgrading the engine to an OS 55ax for more hover power. A Saito 82 would also be great! You can also push the CG further aft as you get better and make it more nimble and to fly better inverted. The quad flaps are fun and you can tame some of the KE problems by learning how to use your computer radio and mixes. The only thing better would be a Jerry's Big Boy. The wing does not have a flat airfoil. It goes where you point it most of the time. It flies almost as well inverted as upright with the CG set back.

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