Big Stick 60 goes boom...
 

We had a battery charger (on quick charge)decide to not beep when charge was full... and continued to pump volts into the battery..

Well, it started smoking. Isaw it from about 30 feet away, ran over fast as Icould, but only in time for it to POPasIstarted to pull wires.

This was a regular reciever pack, 2000 5 cell.

RE: Big Stick 60 goes boom...
 

This was Dad's 'kick-around' Ugly stick. Had an O.S. 110 4 stroke in it, just gobb's of power ;) And like many, he saw it as basicly a loss. NOTwhile I am around!

So, Isalvaged the thing, and got her home. Stripped the covering down around the area, and cleaned up the hole.

Icut out the blown out area as clean as Ican. The battery was in this area, but Ithink Iwill change that for the rebuild.
To keep the balance in the end, Iwill replace the battery weight by installing the elevator and rudder servo's in that location instead. Ithink this plane will become a trainer plane for the kid, and also a test airframe for any equipment in the future Ican test out in it. So, Iwant the airframe to be solid.

RE: Big Stick 60 goes boom...
 

Well, I somehow managed to get carried away, and somewhat lost in my work on this one.. Iforgot to take any pictures of the assembly process.

This was really astraight forward rebuild. Ireally just created servo mounting plates in the tail, mounted the servo's and upgraded the pushrod's to 4-40 hardware. The fuse sides were just re-cut out of balsa. The actual frame of the airframe was undamaged, so there was really no structure support/strength to worry about.

Sheeting was finished, servo's and pushrod's installed, and the covering has been done.

The OS 110 was left with Dad, and a Saito 82 was used to replace it. Because of the difference in motors, Ialso had to relocate the throttle servo.

Ialso decided to loose the nose gear, and mount the main gear up front, to make this a tail dragger. To keep things simpler, Ijust use a piece of music wire in the tail as a skid, rather than mounting a tail wheel setup. This is actually the exact setup as my 2nd plane Dad handed me down when Iwas a kid.

RE: Big Stick 60 goes boom...
 

Now there is a big empty space in that Fuse, I can place the battery and Rx wherever Iwant it. There was about 2+ Oz of lead in the tail before.. So with the Saito 82 replacing the OS 110, Iam loosing a lot of weight in the nose. Not to mention the servo's relocated.

The battery is now resting directly under the rear wing bolt plate, and the Rx is just infront of it, where the once located elevator/rudder/throttle servo's were.
Ialso lost the weight of the nose wheel gear.

When all said and done, Iended up loosing every bit of lead in the tail, and only added 3/4 Oz to the Nose.

RE: Big Stick 60 goes boom...
 

Well, Iwas able to get her back in the air. It was blowing around 15 mph, but the Saito 82 pulled her around at half throttle with plenty of power to spare, really.

Ionly had her up for about 5 mins, Ithink Iput in 2-3 clicks of down elevator to trim her out... But as a general rule Ihave made a habit of for any maiden flights, Ialways start out with a couple 2-3 clicks of up trim before Itake off.

All in all, very pleased with the results. She flies lighter than before, and should be a great plane for 'someone' to learn on :)

I will add a few more images of some more details shortly.

RE: Big Stick 60 goes boom...
 

Nice to see that not everyone throws away a plane over small or minor damage now a days. Before I started building I would have done the same....now it's almost as much fun (re) building or repairing as flying. Also I find that the repair is usually much tougher than the original plane! (that's a win win!)

RE: Big Stick 60 goes boom...
 

good for you on the repair !