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GWS Micro Slow Stick

Wayne

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I'll admit it, I love the GWS planes. One of my favorites for years was the original Slow Stick. They were cheap, good slow flying planes that could be used for everything from training to just goofing around. So when I was able to bring in some Micro Slow Sticks, I just had to have one for myself.

About the build, you should be able to build it in a night. Very simple. It only took me a month or so! OK, I built up and wired everything in the first night, but then Chris here at Aloft decided to make a fancy motor mount, battery tray, ESC mount and landing gear ALL IN ONE tray for the Micro. So I had to have one of those, but I sent him back to work on the CAD to add more lightness to the design. :) It was about a month before I had a chance to get back to the build table and install my new part. Woohoo he did a great job. We will be adding these to our web site soon. For now I am using the stock landing gear. Here are some pics of my build.
IMG_1006.jpg
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I built this one with an Emax MT1806 CW motor. This little motor fits the plane well, and is our cheapest option at this time. It is a 2280Kv running on a 2S800 battery.
https://alofthobbies.com/emax-mt1806-2280-kv-multi-copter-motor-cw.html
https://alofthobbies.com/tattu-800-2s-45c.html
And I'm running a 3 bladed prop. Why a 3 blade? Why not. :) I like the sound of them, and all the cool kidz are running them. LOL I have a pretty small prop on it as I do not need or want much speed, and the plane weighs very little. This little motor is capable of handling a lot of power, I am not using it that way.

I am using a small DualSky speed control, FrSky X4R receiver and some KS 47 servos:
https://alofthobbies.com/ks-hd-47mg-servo-1-2kg-16-6-oz-in-10-sec-5-6-grams.html

All controlled by my FrSky Taranis Q X7S transmitter.

Not much to talk about on the build, just make sure you slide the correct plastic parts in the correct order. About the only trick some people miss is the pushrod supports in the rear wing mount, and paying close attention to what side you should cut the V notch in the rudder and elevator for a cleaner look.

With the 3 bladed prop I have tons of ground clearance. Keeping the plane really light, and bending the metal gear legs forward makes for easy landing even in rocky landing areas as seen in the last photo. This power combo will take off with a small amount of throttle, and honestly that is the most fun with the slow stick. I seem to enjoy flying these with the smallest amount of power. But it is fun to blast the throttle for a little silly action from time to time, or know you can get off the ground with minimum ground roll should it be needed.

I have to say that I had not flown an electric for many months prior to yesterday. I was flying all new gear including the transmitter and I was flying at a site I had never flown from before and the winds were starting to pick up, but I had a total blast. It worked out really well. I was not sure what my battery drain rate was going to be, but I flew for a good 10 minutes shooting a bunch of take offs and landings in a tiny little landing strip and doing nice slow flights past myself at about 3 feet off the ground. Just having fun like the bigger slow sticks. The wind would bump me around at times or mess up a nice landing approach, but all in all it was a lot of fun. When I charged up the battery I found I only used 300mAh of the 800mAh pack! Looks like I could save some more weight and use a 400 or 500 sized battery. Will give that a try next.

The motor/prop/ESC combo works really well and is nearly silent. I am a fan of quiet planes (full size or RC) as the neighbors will not complain if they don't know you are flying. :)

Hmm, wonder if I could fly this on a 1S with a bigger prop. Might be fun..

Keep this plane light and it will be sure to delight. It encourages you to mess around and play with it. I think you will find that a Slow Stick is a hoot regardless of your skill level. In stock form they do not like a lot of weight or a lot of power. With that said, if that is your cup of tea, there are all sorts of mods you can throw at these, and this motor is capable of flying a much larger plane than this one, I have it propped way down from it's potential.

Will see if we can catch some video on a future outing. :) Also, thinking of dropping a micro FPV setup on this.. I think that would be a lot of fun.
 

Flyboy

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Sounds like you made a good build, I was wanting to do the same and was just wondering what size is the 3 blade prop that you used?
 

Wayne

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I want to say it is a 6x4.5, but I'll need to check to make sure. (Don't have the plane here with me right now..)
 

PaulG

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Picked one up last Friday from the store. Chris was awesome and took the time to show me what I needed to do the build, even though he was the only one to show up for work on that beautiful day. He let me check out Wayne's that was sitting on top of a shelf. It is a clean build motivated me to finish up the chores on Saturday and get-er-built on Sunday!

I wanted to go for a super light build. I scavenged the smallest brushless motor I have ever seen, taken out of my totaled Hobby Zone Champ S. (BTW the Champ S is horrible, check out the threads on RC Groups. I could talk more about it but will leave that for another day.)

Here are the parts I used.

TX: https://alofthobbies.com/qx-7-special-edition.html -QX7S, (Great radio at a great price, "nuff said...")

Reciever: https://alofthobbies.com/frsky-xmr-micro-park-flyer-receiver.html (You need to solder the servo and ESC connections. No connectors keeps the build even lighter, it is teeny tiny, and only $11 bucks. I used a small piece of double sided foam tape to mount it to the fuselage, wrapped a piece of black tape around it, and it all but disappeared.)

Battery‎: ‎Eflite 7.4V 280mAh 2S

Motor Size‎: ‎Eflite180 brushless

Used the same SERVOS as Wayne: https://alofthobbies.com/ks-hd-47mg-servo-1-2kg-16-6-oz-in-10-sec-5-6-grams.html (These are really small, good quality servos)

ESC: https://alofthobbies.com/bl-heli-6-amp-esc.html

Wheels: GWS Ultra Light Wheel 65 mm. The model comes with wheels but I went for the bigger ones to launch from grass. Used one of the kit main wheels for the tail wheel and it looks balanced.

Hardest part of the build was the motor mount. I ended up using the stock motor mount from the Champ, heavy-duty double sided taped to one of the small motor mounts included in the kit. I don't like the looks of it and will try to come up with something better. Wish I had a 3D printer.

Hobby Zone must use proprietary connectors since my local electronics store did not have them. I just scavenged the electrical connections from the stock ESC /reciever brick and soldered them to the new ESC. This way I can still unplug the motor from the ESC and still use the Eflight charger for the batteries.

It was an easy bind to the TX, control surfaces are moving fine, and motor ran up no problem. Reassigned the rudder to aileron channel 2 so yaw and elevation are on the same stick. Did not have time to maiden it this weekend so will have to wait until next Sat or Sun. I want to see if it will fly with this small of a motor (any opinions?). My other concern is if it does fly how much range will it get with the tiny receiver? In Chris's defense he tried to talk me into the X4R but the tiny size and the prospect of how much fun I was going to have soldering to those microscopic pads made me ignore his sage advise...

I will update with some pictures before I try to fly it as it may not look the same afterwards! :) Place your bets, will it never get off the ground, will it take off, lose RSSI signal and fly away, or will it be a successful takeoff, flight and landing?

Wish me luck!
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Wayne

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Sweet - I'd love to hear how she does! Keep us posted.

I love these planes when they are very light, I totally respect what you have done. Mine is pretty light, but certainly not under powered. I thought I was building mine pretty light, but you win.
 

PaulG

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Update: Was finally able to get out and fly the slo stick last Sunday at Civic Center. what gave me the most fits was trying to mount the tiny motor to the fuselage stick. My first thought was a 3D printed part but I have not yet settled on what printer I want to buy yet. I ended up using for the first time some thermo-plastic molded around the stock motor mount and while ugly as hell worked like a dream.

So the real news is the plane flies! And flies really well. It is the opposite of Wayne's and a bit under-powered but that makes it a lot of challenging and fun. And yes she is slooooooowwwww.

Thanks again to Aloft and especially Chris for all his help and advise. I now have another proven plane added to the growing fleet!
 

Wayne

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Very good. Chris actually has a motor mount/battery tray/esc mount for this plane. Heck, you can even add carbon fiber landing gear to it if you like. Check the photos of mine above and you can see a bit of it. He is going to make a few mods to it and then we will have them available in the store.
 

PaulG

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Very good. Chris actually has a motor mount/battery tray/esc mount for this plane. Heck, you can even add carbon fiber landing gear to it if you like. Check the photos of mine above and you can see a bit of it. He is going to make a few mods to it and then we will have them available in the store.
awesome! i will keep an eye out
 

Rob

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I fly a night vapor in my small backyard on little to no wind summer days/nights & love it. I found a Von Stik, which I liked, but I'm not a big fan of HobbyKing. While I was doing some research ended up finding aloft with some of these GWS micro slow sticks. Curious as to how 'slow' is slow ;)
 

Brainstorm

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I fly a night vapor in my small backyard on little to no wind summer days/nights & love it. I found a Von Stik, which I liked, but I'm not a big fan of HobbyKing. While I was doing some research ended up finding aloft with some of these GWS micro slow sticks. Curious as to how 'slow' is slow ;)

I have an FPV Vapor, which has the same airframe and electronics as the Night Vapor. The GWS Micro Slow Stick looks like an attractive and affordable upgrade. So I would love to hear how the Micro Slow Stick compares in terms of slow flying ability, esp. in confined spaces like a backyard.

I think the Micro Slow Stick is larger and has higher wing loading than the Vapor. So my suspicion is that it will at the very least fly a bit faster, even if it may be just as maneuverable. This would require a more competent pilot to handle it safely in a confined space.
 

Brainstorm

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Argh! The Micro Slow Stick is now showing as out of stock. Given that Aloft bought up all remaining stock of the discontinued model from GWS, this may be the end of it. :(
 

Wayne

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Yep, it might be.. We will be bringing back the larger Slow Stick later this year, but probably not the smaller version unless there is a lot of interest in it. We may bring back some of the other really good GWS models like the Tibermoth 400 and Formosa.

-Wayne
 

PaulG

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I have to admit defeat on my ultralight build (pictures above). The tiny motor just was not up to the task especially with a rookie pilot like myself.

I have upgraded to the same 1806 motor as Wayne's. Kept my 6A ESC and ultra park flyer receiver. I am a bit worried if the ESC will be up to the job for 800 MAh 2s power, but I imagine I won't be running it wide open for long, if at all. The other plus to this setup is now having the power to run a cool 3-blade prop!

Would you guys have the Chris designed motor mount available yet? I have a couple other small items stashed in my cart and am just waiting for the Sfsky Sim USB to come in to pull the trigger on the order.
 

sbinTexas

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Yep, it might be.. We will be bringing back the larger Slow Stick later this year, but probably not the smaller version unless there is a lot of interest in it. We may bring back some of the other really good GWS models like the Tibermoth 400 and Formosa.

-Wayne
Any idea on when the larger slow stick will be available?
 

Wayne

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The Chris Moto Mount - I will bug him on his return. He is currently out for some medical. He should be back in a few days. Don't be shy to remind us.. LOL

The bigger Slow Stick - We are waiting on space. We are growing our shop just for this reason. We are waiting for the current tenant of the space behind us to evacuate. Once we have that space we can stock the new planes. We have to buy a BUNCH of them for this to make sense. We will be adding some classic GWS as well as a few other brands. :) Sure will be nice to have some space around here, ithas been getting pretty tight!
 

PaulG

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Best wishes to Chris for a full recovery and speedy return!

That is awesome you guys are growing! Having visited your shop on numerous occasions to pick up my orders I understand what you are talking about. Hopefully you will continue to grow and have space to host some build days or evenings.
 

Wayne

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We will be doubling space this round, and have the option to grab about the same amount in the future if needed. After that we will have to find a new location or boot out the last remaining neighbor in the building.
 

purview

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Hi,
nice installation of the components. I don't used to GWS. How is the durability of those plastic clips? The fuselage is out of black glas fibre? Or a cfk-rod
Cheers
Chris
 

Wayne

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Pretty sure it is just black fiber. They are designed to be cheap and take a good bit of abuse. I know I have had a lot of fun and nothing is busted on it yet. :)
 

purview

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it is flexible, change-able and we all have the same problems on the ground-face (y)
 
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