Silly Stick

[Wayne]

We have had a lot of fun with the GWS Slow Sticks and since we ran out, we really wanted to offering something similar. Rafael decided now was the time and he drew up some new designs and made a number or prototypes. As these things go, it grew from there and many many changes later we have something we think is a ton of fun. It makes not only a great trainer, but just a fun little plane to fly regardless of your skill set.

We really did need a new trainer model as we hated that we no longer had something for our walk in customers. Heck, we sold off a few of the prototypes to folks that walked in even though we were very limited on the carbon for the fuselages at the time. I rather get a new pilot up and running!

We debated what to do for the wings, and in the end we opted to include a simple trainer wing as well as a more advanced wing with a lot less dihedral and a pair of ailerons. It's always nice to have a spare set of wings! And about the only thing that can get hurt on these planes is the wings, so they attach with some rubber bands, but if that is not enough to avoid carnage, we will offer spare wings for DIRT CHEAP.

Again we use our favorite little 1407 motor. It is the strong silent type with the beefy 5mm shaft and plenty of power on tap. You can run this plane on 2 or 3 Lipo power, just run the correct prop size. We like it on 2S, plenty of power, and keeps the weight low.

Speaking of weight, yes it under the 250 gram FAA limit.

Welcome back to fun flying!!

Silly Stick

We offer the Silly Stick as a Basic Kit (just the airframe parts) or the Complete Kit. The Complete Kit comes with: Motor Emax 1407 3300 KV - 1 Prop - ESC - 4pcs 1440A servos - 2 fat tires. This kit allows you to fit out both the 2-channel wing and the 4-channel aileron wing. The Aloft Hobbies...

alofthobbies.com

Instructional manual is here (still adding more details):
Silly Stick Manual

What do you think, should we offer a Biplane conversion kit? You know I'll be bugging Rafael to make a mount for my HDZero camera.

 

[Hank GB Z]

Hey Wayne.

Looks like lots of fun. What is the wing span? I didn’t see it listed on the web page or manual? Is this closer in size to the old Pico Stick?

Hank

 

[Wayne]

29" wingspan

 

[Wayne]

We had great weather yesterday so took the Silly Sticks out for some fun at a local park. Here are a few images. We should have a video up once we process the footage.

Of course we had to try the picnic table launch, do you think it made it?

And we had a special guest appearance from our newest little glider. Here it is set up for an arial launch:

You might enjoy the truly complex launch hardware, we add one rubber band, and the Silly Stick is converted to tow duty. LOL

Had a good time flying think we flew for something over 30 minutes with small breaks here and there. In the end the aileron plane used two batteries and the rudder plane still had charge left in the 2S1000mah pack it started off with.

Think the video will show folks how well behaved and fun these models. Are. We do some off roading to show hot solid the gear legs are, we fly in some tight spaces. We crashed into a tree. Do some STOL take offs. Did a lot of low and slow flying. Lots of fun.

 

[Hank GB Z]

Looks like fun Wayne. Is that little glider Free Flight? I only use my slow stick for dropping parachutes.

Hank

 

[Wayne]

Yep, Free Flight. Will be offering a little kit for it soon, just need to finish the instructions.

 

[RafaelAvila]

Today one of our local costumers shared his Silly Stick build and it's looks amazing

you liked it too? grab yours at

Silly Stick

We offer the Silly Stick as a Basic Kit (just the airframe parts) or the Complete Kit. The Complete Kit comes with: Motor Emax 1407 3300 KV - 1 Prop - ESC - 4pcs 1440A servos - 2 fat tires. This kit allows you to fit out both the 2-channel wing and the 4-channel aileron wing. The Aloft Hobbies...

alofthobbies.com

only 45$ for the KIT

 

[Wayne]

 

[Wayne]

Taught my visiting nephew how to fly Saturday. Weapon of choice? Silly Stick!

Picture was taken after flying, notice no damage to the plane.

He plays video games and thought the elevator should work the other way around, so started him off on Pica-sim on an I-pad the night before. He did that for about an hour and had the basics figured out. Went out to the field the next day and gave him a quick bit of safety and basics and trimmed out the plane and let him have at it. He did horrible at first, but learned super quick. I had him on a trainer cable!!

I like like to set up my trainers so the student has about 50% of travel and I can just use my radio to make corrections as needed. I just give them rudder and elevator for the first flight. When they shows signs of control I'll add in throttle control and a bit more authority, maybe 70%. By the second battery pack he had pretty good control and could fight the head winds and put the plane where I requested pretty well. Then showed him the basics of a loop and he started doing those. He tended to add rudder to his loops, but he got the hang of it. By the third battery he had throttle control and did his first take offs. By now I hardly needed to make any corrections to save the plane.

He had a great time and can't wait to fly some more. Think I know what he will be getting for the holidays.

 

[G-man]

Wayne,
Very fine ideas in your lesson plans.
Way to go getting the little guys involved.
// Dave

 

[Hawaii Sloper]

And just like that you created a young addict! I’m sure your relatives will love you.
Good thing you know a reputable hobby shop that will give him a nice discount…

 

[Wayne]

My nephew lives down by Jordan (from the Sunset event) in Orange County, so lucky Jordan will be getting a call letting him know he needs to work with my nephew to complete his training.

 

[thenated0g]

Really hoping to get my nephew on some real sticks someday. He is crazy good at picasim on his phone using stupid virtual sticks. I think a lot of good training can come from the simulators. You get used to knowing what you need to do to counteract what the plane is doing and you can get a good feel for the physics of where a plane is going to be.

I gotta say some of my favorite memories are with the younger kids/guys at sunset. Kyles kids last year were so great. Super funny kids and great fliers. All the time over the years goofing off with @gp49 and @Wayne 's kids (ahem employees).

 

[Wayne]

Kyle sent me some photos of some of the kids new planes. His daughter does some sweet design work on them. She is turning into a real artist.