RE: Great Planes Escapade Disaster
[quote]ORIGINAL: gboulton [quote]ORIGINAL: Mikecam The end result was predicted the day the worker put this Escapade in the box. [/quote] No it wasn't. Like every other plane that goes in for similar reasons, it was ''predicted'' the moment you neglected to perform a thorough pre-flight on an airplane you didn't build. [/quote] Geez. He said he wicked glue in the elevator joiner and pulled on the elevator to check. What more do you expect? Great Planes advertises one of the features of this model is prehinged control surfaces. If they advertise this, then they need quality control measures to ensure it's done correctly.
Posted on: 11/20/2009 3:27 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "ARF or RTF"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9267931

RE: I'm going electric!! What should I get?
Wheelnut, I'm looking into a DX6i or DX7. I'll probably not get more than 3-4 models flying at a time. Should I spring for a DX7 over a DX6i? I currently have two glow models (Stik and Nexstar).
Posted on: 11/17/2009 11:20 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Park Flyers & Backyard Flyers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9260105

RE: Parkzone NEW BRUSHLESS (YES!!!) P-51 Mustang RTF and BNF
Mad, In the BF 109 thread, you recommended getting the P51BL before the the BF109. Any reasons? I'm flying Nitro right now and am very comfortable with my Big Stik 60 with a 90 engine. Would I have any trouble with the Gunfighter or BF109?
Posted on: 11/17/2009 11:11 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Park Flyers & Backyard Flyers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9260084

RE: I'm going electric!! What should I get?
I'm sure if you look long and hard enough, you can find a deal somewhere. This is America, afterall. I'm just saying that the standard price for a new DX6i without a receiver is $150 before tax and shipping and with receiver, it's $200 before tax and shipping.
Posted on: 11/16/2009 11:18 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Park Flyers & Backyard Flyers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9257589

RE: I'm going electric!! What should I get?
Wheelnut: where can you get a DX6i with receiver for $150? The cheapest I've found is $199 and that is with the AR6200 full range receiver, which is probably too large to put into a parkflier.
Posted on: 11/15/2009 11:51 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Park Flyers & Backyard Flyers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9256776

RE: Second Plane
I'd highly recommend you at least research a Big Stik or Ultra Stik as your second plane. I guarantee you'll love it.
Posted on: 11/4/2009 10:36 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9227474

RE: OS AX .46 question
My .46FX sat in the garage for 10 years before I used it again in January 2009. It was gummed up inside. I removed the glow plug and filled the cylinder and carb with fuel and let it sit overnight. The next morning, I drained it, put in a new glow plug and it fired up on the first try.
Posted on: 10/27/2009 1:55 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9206262

RE: OS 55 AX dead sticks
I've heard varying descriptions of the pinch test. Can someone tell me how i can tell if the low end is set correctly with the pinch test?
Posted on: 10/14/2009 11:19 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9172485

RE: Big Stik 60 Tail dragger
[quote]ORIGINAL: dignlivn Mine is a 40 size, but here are some pics Bob [/quote] It looks like you have the gear placed so that the centerline of the gear aligns with the leading ede of the wing. But there's a former inside the fuse right at this spot. Did you have to remove the bulkhead/former to install the gear where you have it?
Posted on: 10/11/2009 1:59 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9163953

RE: Broken Big Stik wing
[quote]ORIGINAL: ppkk [quote]ORIGINAL: DenverJayhawk This is exactly what happened with my BS 60. I called towerhobbies and they sent me a replacement wing set. I didn't even need to send in the old wing. I'd imagine you could fix it yourself. Just juse lots of epoxy. [/quote] I would have done that if they'd send me a wing kit, but they wanted the entire plane back. I even
Posted on: 10/10/2009 2:44 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9161892

RE: It is done!!
Lots of RTF applications with SPEKTRUM too, especially with Parkzone coming out with a new model seemingly every other month.
Posted on: 10/10/2009 2:36 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9161882

RE: Broken Big Stik wing
This is exactly what happened with my BS 60. I called towerhobbies and they sent me a replacement wing set. I didn't even need to send in the old wing. I'd imagine you could fix it yourself. Just juse lots of epoxy.
Posted on: 10/10/2009 2:34 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9161880

RE: High Wind Flying
[quote]ORIGINAL: RVman i'm still skeptical with some of these wind claims. Gusts to 40+ mph for example is extreme for a sport plane. A speed plane that is fast and clean might be able to handle it but you would need 1/2 throttle on a slower sport plane to keep it moving forwards. Thats not to mention any turbulence and such. But everywhere I've flown we have hills, trees, etc that cause shifty and bumpy winds...not many here fly in more than 10-15 mph. [/quote] Not sure why I feel I need to justify this to you, but here goes. Weather.com on Sept 31 at Cherry Creek State Park in Denver CO said wind gusts above 40mph. Our club is in the middle of a field next to a lake. This is the only historical data I could find on wind conditions in an area close to Cherry Creek State Park. The wind will be lower in Centennial, CO since it's a suburb of Denver. But you'll get the idea of the wind speed we had in the city on this day. I have no reason to doubt that weather.com's 40mph + gust readings at our club were false on that day. http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KAPA/2009/9/31/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA
Posted on: 10/10/2009 2:20 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9161863

RE: Engine Stall While Flying
[quote]ORIGINAL: Gray Beard And just for grins try a new OS #8 and if you can then even a type F. [/quote] I tried a #8 initially when breaking in the engine and couldn't get it to idle reliably. So I've been using an A3 since then.
Posted on: 10/7/2009 1:31 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9154044

RE: Engine Stall While Flying
Opjose - thanks. I'll try that. Stupid question here: the idle needle is a flat head screw within the throttle arm connection. What would you say is the equivalent turn of the screw to equal a "click"? So for example, if i richened the idle by four "clicks", would that be a 1/4 turn on the idle screw?
Posted on: 10/7/2009 1:30 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9154039

RE: Engine Stall While Flying
[quote]ORIGINAL: Gray Beard One of my SK .91s is doing that too but in my case the fuel tank is too far back from the engine and it isn't drawing enough fuel on the low side. It's not an air bleed carb so you aren't going to find that hole mentioned. If you fatten up the low end a little it may help but it sounds like a draw/pressure problem? Check and make sure you don't have any air bubbles in your fuel line, if you do it could be a hole in a line or a loose bung. It's just something simple that you haven't located yet. It could even be the glow plug cooling down. The temps are starting to drop now and I'm starting to have to fatten up my engines already. My engines are tuned for 100+ degrees and it has been in the 40s at the field in the morning, that's a pretty big drop so I'm opening up the needles a click at a time until the weather gets stable again. [/quote] I've checked the fuel line and there's no bubbles at all and I just replaced the glow plug with a "hot" A3 plug. The fuel line has a clean stream of fuel going to the carb. It's really strange that it only does this while in the vertical climbing position.
Posted on: 10/7/2009 12:47 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9153940

RE: Engine Stall While Flying
[quote]ORIGINAL: psuguru It seems to me that the issue is that, because you can run at full throttle in the vertical and the engine dies when you throttle back that the tank pressure is causing a rich cut when you throttle down. I think you maybe have too rich an idle needle setting or the air-bleed for idle needs opening a bit. Are you using a non-return valve on the pressure feed? Personally, I'm a big fan of Perry pumps and, although they tell you not to, I use a return to the tank from the needle to avoid fuel over pressure when throttling back from high speed. [/quote] I could try to lean out the low speed needle. I'm not sure where the air-bleed for the low speed needle is. The only adjustment I can find for low speed is the screw inside the throttle arm. When you say Non-return valve, can you elaborate? The engine is a basic setup. Tank has two lines, one going to carb, one going to exhaust.
Posted on: 10/7/2009 10:40 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9153660

Engine Stall While Flying
I have an SK90 on a Big Stik 60. The engine runs great except in the following scenario: I go full throttle into a vertical climb. When in the vertical position, if I throttle back from full throttle in an attempt to hover, the engine will stall. I know it's not the plumbing in the tank. I checked it. Also, the engine runs fine when wide open throttle during a vertical climb. I also did some trouble shooting on the ground. I went to full throttle and held the plane in a vertical position. Engine runs great. But then if I throttle back from wide open, it dies. The high speed is already set slightly rich and there's a nice smoke trail from the exhaust. I tried to fatten it up even more but then the engine would burble and not run smoothly at full throttle. I don't think it's the low speed needle either because I can idle for several seconds and then transition to full throttle without any problem. The interesting thing is this only happens when the plane is in a full vertical position. In any other scenario, I can transition from one throttle position to another without missing a beat. Any thoughts? One positive aspect is i've become very good at dead stick landings. I can land it on the runway on a dime.
Posted on: 10/7/2009 10:20 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9153613

RE: H9 Ultra Stick
I'd recommend keeping the nose gear setup initially with your Stik. After you get more time on the model, I'd consider going the tail dragger option. It's not hard to add a tail wheel, but the design of the fuse and stab makes it such that you either have to drill a hole through the stab to lead a wire into the rudder of will need to add a servo and tie it to the rudder channel via mixing or y harness. Regarding dihedral, there's very little of it. I kept it as designed.
Posted on: 10/5/2009 10:37 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9147967

RE: H9 Ultra Stick
My second model is a Big Stik 60 with an SK90 engine up front. It flies great, especially in the wind. I have it on full high rates and it's just a blast. I chose it over the H9 Ultra Stick primarily because I liked the color scheme better and at the time, it was nearly $50 cheaper. I'd heard fun things about the quad flaps on the Ultra, but then I've also heard from folks here and elsewhere that they can take a lot of time to setup and requires a lot of fine tuning. I like my models simple (no cowl or retracts, easy to access inside, etc.) because I want to spend as little time maintaining and adjusting it as possible. My only wish was that the Big Stik has a tail dragger option from the ARF kit. I'm always adjusting the nose gear and I can land this thing on a dime smoothly, even in high wind. I'll convert it to a tail dragger eventually. If I were to do it again, I might try the Ultra Stick simply because it's a tail dragger and H9 has dropped the prices on the 60 size Stick to where it's competitive with the Big Stik. If you go with the Big Stik, you should do a few simple mods to correct a couple of the known weak spots in the design. Most notably, the wing peg that connects to the fuse should be strengthened with Epoxy and the area on either side of the fuse just in front of the horizontal stab should also be stregthened.
Posted on: 10/4/2009 11:56 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9147208

RE: Big Stik 60 Tail dragger
Anyone know if a 700mA 4.8 cell battery pack can run 6 servos (standard 5 plus 1 for tailwheel)?
Posted on: 10/2/2009 12:21 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9141259

RE: Big Stik 60 Tail dragger
[quote]ORIGINAL: w8ye A friend has one that has the tail wheel wire going up into the rudder. The main gear was just moved to the front using the 1/4'' plywood doubler behind F2. I did one a few years back and built up a lower place under the horizontal stabilizer to look like the skid that comes with the ARF but big enough to mount the tail wheel bracket. I ran the tail wheel wire up into the rudder. [/quote] When moving the main gear to the front, do you need to use Blind Nuts for the screws to go into? Or can the screws just go into the 1/4" ply?
Posted on: 10/2/2009 10:13 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9140970

RE: Big Stik 60 Tail dragger
[quote]ORIGINAL: carrellh I installed a 1/4 aircraft plywood plate in front of the servo tray, against the former at the front of the wing saddle. I installed 1/4-20 blind nuts and used nylon screws to attach the main gear. I used a tail wheel assembly similar to http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXCLK9&P=0 and ran a pushrod from the rudder servo to turn it. Some people drill through the stabilizer and run a steering wire through to the rudder. Others mount a servo under the rear of the fuselage and attach it to the tail wheel. My 60 size Big Stik needed a fair amount of lead on the tail so installing a servo back there may be a good idea. [/quote] carrellh, I have the BS 60 and am considering the taildragger conversion. Do the 1/4-20 blind nuts work with the screws provided with the ARF's landing gear or do i need to get separate screws? The battery I'm using is a 700map 4.8 cell running 5 servos. Is this enough juice to power a 6th servo for the tailwheel? Also, if I go with the wire through the stab and into the rudder option, how would I attach the wire to the rudder? Currently, the rudder is already hinged/glued to the vertical stab. So unless I cut off the rudder and then rehinge it after adding the tailwire, I don't see a clear way to afix the tailwire to the rudder. Any help is much appreciated.
Posted on: 10/2/2009 10:10 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9140963

RE: High Wind Flying
[quote]ORIGINAL: speedy72vega Where are you flying at DenverJayHawk? I always fly at Chatfield, there's a North/South runway as well as an East/West, nice when there's a crosswind. [/quote] I fly out of Cherry Creek state park. We have a North/South and West/East runway, but yesterday, the wind was out of the Southwest. I've been to the club at Chatfield and I know it's very
Posted on: 10/1/2009 3:37 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9139140

RE: High Wind Flying
:) I originally posted it to the ARF/RTF forum by mistake and asked the mods to move it to Beginners.
Posted on: 10/1/2009 2:01 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9138912

RE: High Wind Flying
Mods - I meant to post this in the Beginners forum. Sorry. Can it be moved?
Posted on: 10/1/2009 10:31 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9138395

High Wind Flying
Wind was 33-36mph and guesting up to 44mph at the club yesterday according to weather.com. I wasn't going to get a chance to fly again for at least another week if I didn't go yesterday, so I said "what the hell" and packed up the Big Stik 60 in the SUV after work. I wasn't surprised that I was the only person there. Each time I fly the Stik, I fall in love with it even more. On landing I would do a high speed down wind and base. Then on final I kept about 1/4 throttle and crabbed it in to the beginning of the runway. At about 3 feet above the runway I cut throttle and it straighted out perfectly from the crab approach, harriered like a kite for about 3 seconds, then touched down more gently than any other landing I've ever done. When I kept airspeed up on final, it was much less affected by the diagnal cross wind and basically cut through the wind like hot knife. Plus it makes this great howling sound on approach. I'm really glad I went with a .91 sized engine as it pulled through 30mph head wind without missing a beat. High wind flying is GREAT! More people should do it and more people should own STIKS! I think a Stik will always be a permanent stay in my collection.
Posted on: 10/1/2009 10:17 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9138371

RE: How many times do you crash?
I've only crashed once where it was a total loss. Engine stall on takeoff and and it lawn darted into the dirt. All my other "quasi" crashes have really just been rough landings on deadstick approaches without much repair.
Posted on: 9/29/2009 8:41 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9132563

RE: Maidening the GP Big Stik 40 tomarrow.
I haven't flown a 4-Star but I would think that the Stik should be easier to handle with its high wing placement. Sorry to hear about the crash on the maiden.
Posted on: 9/28/2009 10:51 AM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9129769

RE: Maidening the GP Big Stik 40 tomarrow.
I love my Big Stik 60. Easier to fly than my Nexstar and so much more capable. You're in for a treat.
Posted on: 9/26/2009 4:26 PM by Author "DenverJayhawk" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9125760