| Homemade Stik Planes |
| Shows curved leading edge of a foam wing. Notice a thread still attached to rubberband. It was used to test the plane in a semi-controled situation. |
| For this prototype, a simple thread pull-pull linkage was used. Servos are attached with velcro to fuse. Since the fuse is short, a long vertical stab was added along with very large surface area to rudder. |
| View of the simple mounting of the gws 4p receiver and battery. Antenna runs to wingtip and is held in place with tape. Battery is in front of receiver for crash protection. The esc is hard to see but mounted on the side of the fuse to shield it from battery impact in a hard landing. |
| Using foam trays from the supermarket, I tried making something that would fly. My first model uses basswood for the fuse and gws pico electronics with liite stik motor and homemade 1" foam wheels. The wingspan on this model is about 26" and there is about 1" of dihedral to add a bit of stability. The tail is made from the same foam stock and is just a freehand design. The first prototype is set up rudder elevator only but the wing was made pretty deep so ailerons will be the next logical step. A piece of balsa was added to the fuse to add some angle to the wing and it is held in place with rubberbands connected to two small dowels passing through the stick fuse. If the plane proves itself with some flight time, I will check the weight. I would guesstimate it at 7 ounces ready-to-fly using the rayovac 9volt battery. |
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| Side view of the wing showing the curved and slightly higher leading edge. |
| NOTE: To see the full size images, right click on a picture and select view image. |
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| This shot is kind of dark but is of the first real flight with my scratch built plane, the mattstik. Didn't do anything special but it was very fun to see something I made fly! |
If you want to build a dirt cheap plane, this is worth a look. Other than the electronics and lite stik dx-a motor, it was all cheap homemade stuff you can find around the house. 1-basswood stick fuse 3/16 x 3/8 x36" $1.35 2-14" foam meat trays for wings free 1-14" meat tray for tail sections free 1-0.025 x 12" wire for landing gear $0.40 2-1" foam wheels punched from meat tray free 4-1/4" plastic scrap plastic for wheel axle free a bit of 5-min epoxy and white glue $0.50 black button thread for servo linkage $0.05 control horns (zip ties w/holes in ends) $0.05 Total Investment $2.45 |
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| Check out my free 1" foam wheels. Punched out of foam tray stock with scrap plastic glued to center for support. Even lighter than lite stik gear. |