GWS Slow Stick
9-6-03 8:00am Flying in the field next to my house. I decided to get an electric parkflyer to fly in a field next to my house to get some more stick time, and because they're pretty neat. After much deliberation I decided to get a GWS slow stick, mostly because it was the least expensive to get in the air. I bought a GWS flight pack and crystal that would work with my Airtronics radio.
The construction was pretty straight foward, the pictures in the manual could have more up-close shots of how the black plastic pieces mount on the fuse, but I found that the large photo on the box was pretty useful. Also, the text is poorly translated at times. I changed a couple of things while building the kit. first, I used 3M heavy duty packing tape rather than the kit supplied decal tape, I felt it would work better. I used a sharpie marker to run along the hinge areas to taper them rather than cutting off some of the foam and allowing the control surface to swing off-center. The elevator wasn't attached to the horizontal stabilizer when it came out of the box anyway.
I also mounted the tail feathers with both the tape, and the screws. When you do this, be sure to attach the vertical first, then the horizontal. After you attach the horizontal it is difficult to get your drill in next to the vertical to drill the svrew holes (but it is possible, I did it) I used 5min epoxy to mount the screw plates and control horns to the tail feathers, and I also used it between the two halves of the wing. I attached the power unit with a screw on the bottom of the fuse so I could remove it later, which was very useful because I had installed the servo mounts backwards. I added V bends to the pushrods to allow for adjustment. I tried to make large Z bends but I couldn't figure them out. I also added a screw and a small balsa block to one of the servo mounts to keep them from sliding around.
When I first ordered the plane I also bought a pack of chisel tip sharpie markers with the intention of decorating the underside of the wing. After my first day of flying the airplane I spent a couple minutes sketching out an idea and after asking my wife and her friend, I decided to add 2 stripes on each wing half. I also got pretty clever and used the red sharpie on the white nylon screw plates for the tail surfaces and I used it over the tape that secures the fiberglass rods for the LE and TE, they magically disappear. I then went and colored in the white foam along the outside edges of the tail feathers and wing, it looks pretty snazzy now, even if you can't tell when it's in the air. See the pics below:
I can say that the plane is a blast to fly, even though it is only rudder and elevator, you can do basic aerobatics and I even had it flying inverted for about 8 seconds using full down elevator while inverted. I might add a little more throw, but it nearly touches the rudder at full up at the moment. It has hit the ground once so far, I was teaching and friend to fly and it went into the dirt during a stall from about 10' which broke the prop and but two small dinks in the foam, the landing gear popped off, otherwise it was fine. I expected to find it in pieces.
9-6-03 - A little 3d slow stick flying? it was windy out.
Here is a pic of my pc power supply and my hobbico quick field charger mkII, I really like the charger, it's like having 2 separate chargers. you can charge nicd, nimh, or li-ion cells and adjust the amperage between .2a and 2.a but li-ions max at 1a. I use it for both my slow stick packs, my tx, and my rx pack for the duraplane.I am using a GWS 600mah 6 AA cell pack and a sony 2 1350mah lithium ion cell pack.. it usually takes 30min to charge the nicd pack and 2 hours to charge the li-ion pack. with aerobatic flying the nicd gets about 8 minutes and the li-ion gets 6 to 8. Flying as slowly as possible, the nicd gets 12 minutes and the li-ion gets an impressive 27 minutes.
After over 70 flights the aluminum dihedrial braces in the wing broke and allowed it to fold up during one flight and drilled the plane breaking the fuse boom, wing, prop, and receiver crystal. It is recommended that you replace the braces with brass instead.
