Lite Stick Flying Help

[groo1887]

Hello,

This is my first park flyer and I am having a hard time gaining altitude. I have flown a .40 gas model a few times and am used to having lots of power. I followed many of the tips indicated on this board and lightened the model. I am able to get the plane up about 20 feet at that point when I try to go higher the plane angels upwards and remains at the same altitude. It seems like it just deosn't have enough push to go higher. Thanks
-Amir

[pease1]

What battery pack did you get? If you got a 6-cell NiCad then you're getting what you should out of your stik. A 7-cell pack will give you much more power.

Too many vendors are selling the stik with the 6-cell pack which is inadequate.

Al

[OCModels]

Originally posted by Allan Wright:
<STRONG>6-cell pack which is inadequate.

Al</STRONG>
Unfortunately I can not share this same point of view. I fly my Litestik regularly on six cell packs all the time and I have never had a problem. Albeit the 7 cell packs give it that little extra but most of the time I throttle back on the seven cell and fly at about 6 cell speed. There are so many things that can contribute to the litestiks performance that listing them here would take most my morning break. If you lighten up the stik, add dihedral, and fly the stik like it should be flown, the six cell packs are all that you need. The litestik is no .40 size un flyer but it also should give you more performance than you are getting.

My questions will be this! What radio gear are you using? Did you get rid of all the plastic hanging underneath? Are the tires still on the wheels? (These things way a ton)
What is the all up weight of your litestik? Mine weighs 6.4 ounces with 6 cell 270mAh battery pack. Did you mount the servos directly to the stick? And last but not least which front wing mount did you use? The tall one or the short one?

I can fly mine up to altitudes higher than I can see. (This is my litestik at this altitude (.) ) It really does get that small that high... :D

Hope I can help,
Jeffrey Park

[pease1]

The plastic battery mount is heavy - lose it. I use some elastic bands to hold my battery on. Recently I put some velcro on a small piece of balsa and use that to hold them. Either is much lighter than the large plastic holder that comes with the kit.

[OCModels]

What are you using to charge the battery pack? I have known some people using the 25 minute charger that comes in a combo to not ge a peak charge on the pack. I checked this out myself using the 25 minute charger then putting it on my supernova and it was only about 60% charged. Plus the fact that the Wattage packs are not the greatest to begin with. I use Sanyo 270mAh cells all the time and have never had a problem.

If you want to weigh the model go down to your local post office and either ask one of the workers to weigh it for you or most PO's have a scale in the lobby. Before I had a scale of my own, this is what I would do.

The tall wing mount is intended more for indoor and no wind flying. The shorter one is for more outdoor flying but still very little wind. I took two of the rear mounts and used them on both the front and back of the wing. Basicaly I have 0 incidence now.

The great thing about the litestik is that you can play with it and try new things. Sometimes it works and sometimes you wish you didn't do that last mod... For $25 you ca't beat it...

Have you visited nyblimp yet?
http://www.nyblimp.com/litestick.htm

Jeffrey Park

[groo1887]

I removed the battery mount and pushed the battery even further forward. I also increased the dihedaral a lot by putting more tension on the string. The 25 minute charger wasn't getting the batteries warm so after the timer went off I restarted it and left the pack on for another 10 minutes until it was slightly warm. The plane flew a lot better. I was able to get it about 150 feet off the ground. I tried to go higher but at that point the plane was a bit far and the flight against the wind to get it back overhead drained my batteries.


I also tried to get the plane to loop. I dove quite sharply and gained some speed. I then pulled up and the plane went almost verticle at which point it stalled. It seems like the plane reaches its terminal velocity before I can get enough speed to finish the loop.

-Amir

[OCModels]

Glad to here it!

Don't feel bad... I can't get mine to loop either.

Jeffrey Park

[groo1887]

Thanks for the help. I am using the 6 cell 150mAH NiCad pack made by wattage. I mounted the servos directly to the stick but am still using the plastic to hold the battery. I am going to remove the plastic and mount it directly to the stick. The wheels are being used with out the rubber 0 rings but I am not sure how much the model weighs for lack of a scale. I am using the short front wing mount but am not sure which one is best suited to help remedy my problem. Is it possible that my CG is to far back? The stick is flat when I balance it at the points indicated in the instructions. Thanks again!

-Amir

[pease1]

Sounds like you found the problem - that damned cheap charger. Good work finding the solution. If you double charge make sure you monitor the heat (like you did) or you can squick a pack.

The under camber wing and slow speed makes the lite stik not really built for loops. I looped mine stock but it was more like a flop than a loop and I lost almost 60 feet doing it - not reccomended.

If you do want an acrobatic stick some people have had luck trimming 3" off each wingtip and reinforcing the wings with carbon fiber. It's still a litestik though so don't expect wonders. These planes are wonderful for what they are, but acrobatic they aint!

Check out Gabe's Litestik Pages (http://www.nyblimp.com/litestick.htm) for more stik mods than you can shake a stick at. Check out the autogyro stick, that's the one that talks about clipping the wings.

Congratulations!
Al

[OCModels]

Clipping the wings will most definitely give you better loops but you lose a lot of lift in the process. I cut my wings down and can only fly it on 7 cells or else it won't stay up. With seven cells thought! The litesitk is a whole new beast. I can loop it and at really high altitude I can sort of roll it... I say sort of because it is real ugly and loses a lot of altitude in the process. Here is a link to my highly modified litestik.
http://www.geocities.com/ocmodels/stik.html

I cut one bay from the center and two from the outer wing panel. Then added just enough dihedral to get it to turn nicely. I can only really fly it as a pylon type plane because it is so much faster than the stock stik and wants to sink a lot more than the stock stik. I think I will try a lighter six cell pack and see if that helps as I want to race it and the battery is limited to six cells...

Jeffrey Park

[ 06-08-2001: Message edited by: OCModels ]

[groo1887]

I saw your site and it looks great. I will practice a bit more with uncut wings on my stick. One of the pictures has a battery on your workbench. It looks quite large what type is it. Does it make the plane harder to fly with its extra weight?

I moved the wings on my stick back about another inch and the plane flew even better. It was quite windy out but the plane climbed even better than before. I am getting the hang of the stick but am running out of things to tweak without making major changes to the plane. I think I will look into buying new batteries. the 150 mah NiMH cells look good but are a bit pricey. Any recomendations?

-Amir

-Amir

[OCModels]

The battery pack in the pictures is a Sanyo 6 cell 270 mAh pack. It comes with the GWS flight packs. I also have a 7 cell 270mAh pack. A 7 cell Nimh 150 pack would be a good pack to go with. I think you can get 7cell packs from cloud nine for a very reasonable price. I went to bateriesamerica and saw they have a new lithium battery made just for slowflyers. It's something like $55 for the battery and charger but 30 minutes flights would be a norm. I'm thinking of getting one sometime soon.

Jeffrey Park

[RS]

Having read all the mail about the Lite Stik makes me wonder if I will encounter the same poor power. This is my first electric (it was a gift). I am using a 6 cell Sanyo 225ma pack. Have modified the wing to be a polyhedreal wing without thread to hold it's shape. Expect to fly it in next few days.

RS

[pease1]

Polyhedral mod - that's a new idea (and a good one). Make sure you send Gabe some photos over at www.nyblimp.com (http://www.nyblimp.com) for his page!

Al

[groo1887]

I took apart both of the 6 cell 110mah NiCd packs that came with my plane and made one 8 cell pack. The plane has a lot more power and climbs much better. I still haven't been able to do a loop yet but that is probably dure to the extra weight. I have found a good place to order batteries at a low price. Check out http://www.balsapr.com/
Balsa Products (http://www.balsapr.com/)

[pease1]

Balsa products 8-cell 280 mAh NiMh is a good lite stil choice that's for sure. 7 cell is pretty good choice too and safer for your motor.

The lite stik never will be much of a looping plane - that's really not what she's built for. Shoot touch-and-goes with her instead. If you want loops, you'll have to wait until I release the plans for my Electric mite :-)

[RS]

I just flew my Lite Stick (my first park flyer)for the first time and it flew great! Using a 225mah pack. No problem with climb - gentle but gradual. Stayed up good 10 min (could have stayed up longer) before landing.

Flew with stock prop, spinner, wheels, etc. Next time will try it w/o spinner and rubber O rings on wheels. After reading all the notes about the 'Stick' not turning very well, I cut each wing half and made them into a polyhedreal type wing. Did not think much of the idea of tying thread to the wing tips to put bow (dihedreal)in the wings. My 'Stick' is very agile and turns great!

Also cut/sliced through the hinge lines at various places which greatly lessened the stiffness.

RS

[drc]

sometimes you could be one of the unlucky one a have a dud of a motor? I have had one with a bad motor already right in the box,checked everything and thought for sure it was my speedo until I hooked up another power unit!

[groo1887]

Well the 8 cell pack and a 9x7 prop did the trick. along with the other "standard" modifications I was able to get my litestick to fly like a rocket. Only until I tried to loop it from a very steep dive and the wings folded. I ordered a Minimax as a replacement. All the stores were out of litesticks!

[MaD Scientist]

I have the same setup and can tell you for sure the wattage 150 packs are the problem. my plane still has all the plastic, no tires and will climb to spec hight in 20 seconds on my 6 cell 270mah pack and 10+ min. flights. The same plane with either of my wattage 150 packs climbs slowly right from takeoff and refuses to climb after 45 seconds and is struggling to fly @ 2min.

My cg is almost half an inch behind the cg on the plans.

[ameittunen]

Is this plan worth getting or is it boring after a while? Would u recamend ot for a person who alreaady know how to fly airplanes and flyes them frewuently, cuz i have two gas planes, a tower trainer 40 and a tower voyager 40 with a .46 in it.