| Day 1 |
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The .40 size Ultra Stick, $215 CAD retail. I chose the .40 size because it was smaller than the .60 size, easier to fit in my car.
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Less parts and more pre-assembled than Solo Sport, easier to build I thought, how wrong I was.
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My work area visited, tools prepared to start building this sucker.
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Oops! First fuck-up. Looks like the right wing was crushed in transport and had to be replaced. I could have fixed it
if I really wanted to but that would require me to cut away the monocote, I just returned this part back to the store for a replacement.
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This plane is only couple inches smaller than the Solo Sport
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The horizontal stabilizer with part of the monocote cut away for gluing to the fuselage of the plane, Once
again the shoddy construction comes into play, the monocote is not even self-adhesive, it's simply shrink-wrapped around the plane.
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The moving surface hinges are of pretty crappy quality, feels like paper and looks just as fragile.
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The left wing with ailerons and flaps glued in place.
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| End of day 1 was not TOO bad, some minor issues with the plane but nothing too critical |
| Day 2 |
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The two wing halves joined together, this was the easiest step of the day.
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The vertical stablizer epoxied on. After applying the glue and sticking it on turns out the fin is just a tad too long
great, I thought. What else could go wrong.
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This is the most blatant fuck-up of the manual. They did not describe properly the installation of the rear-wheel. The
parts in the manual also were different than the ones in the box. Leaving me with nothing but guesswork. Check out the gap
between the fuselage and the elevator, way too big. Can't fix it tho, because the plane was designed to use thin super glue (1-2 seconds cure)
The hinges can not be adjusted after applying the glue hence it's permanent like this. All this because the rear wheel bushing
was sticking out too far (which was also not covered in the manual). I ended up having to start carving away at the
thin join of the elevator in order to get some movement out of it, Will definitely have to seal this gap somehow.
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The servo holders cut out, unlike the trainer which used 1 servo to control the ailerons, this one uses 4 servos. 2 for flaps and 2 for ailerons. |
| End of day 2. At this stage I'll be lucky if this plane gets off the ground for more than few seconds.
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| Day 3 |
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Attaching the control horns once again proved to be a challenge. The way these control horns were designed and the
type of screw they used was a joke. The elevator horn is on there permantently because the phillips pattern on the screw holding it has now been
shaved off. |
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Both rudder and elevator control horns attached. |
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Front gears attached to the axle, axle attached to the plane's fuselage. This axle is much sturdier than I anticipated.
It won't take as much hard landings as the trainer, that's for sure. |
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Fuel tank inserted into the plane, pushed through the firewall, unfortunately they forgot to add some sort of
fastening mechanism to hold the tank in place, additionally once the screws for the engine mount go in, they will
actually push the fuel tank away from the firewall, how stupid is that? |
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The engine mount bolted to the firewall's blind nuts and the engine installed. This plane is going to be pretty nose
heavy and will have to be counterballanced with some weight. Will probably replace the stock muffler with a lighter, smaller after-market type.
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| Day 4 |
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Trial fit of the wing to the fuselage. The plane is definitely much smaller than the trainer but has overall
larger control surfaces. |
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The wooden dowels that hold the wing in place when inserted into the fuselage. |
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The aileron and flaps servos installed into the wing. I had to use a string with a weight in order to pull the wires
through the wing insides. |
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Pushrods with clevises attached to the control horns on the elevator and rudder. There is definitely enough throw on both
but getting there was a big pain in the ass.
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Servo installation for the rudder/elevator/throtle was relatively painless. The clevises that came with the kit
were a bit to tight so I had to completely remove the pushrods and feed them through the back of the pushrod.
I will probably be changing the servo arms to a longer version for even more throw. The elevator seems to be
the one that needs it the most.
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| Crash 1 |
| Yep, it's happened. After only a handful of flights. Yours truly ran the plane into the ground.
Literaly, nose dived, a low altitude nose stall. Even worse, I tried to regain altitude and had the engine at full throtle when it hit the ground.
Tore the gear right off, firewall, fuel storage. Everything up to the wing holder was destroyed. But she'll fly again, the damage can be repaired. |
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The damage is extensive but salvagable.
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The firewall and engine mount torn right off.
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The gear also torn off. Along with the gear mount hardpoint.
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The engine is in terrible shape. It hit the dirt at full RPM's with the carb fully open. A lot of dirt got into
the engine. You can see part of the firewall still attached to the engine mount.
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Had to take the engine completely apart to clean the insides from any dirt. I had to make sure that there isn't even
a simple speck of dirt in the combustion chamber as it could damage the head during run.
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The new firewall cut, drilled, installed and glued. I used a lot of epoxy to make sure that it'll hold on the the rest of the plane.
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The gear hardpoint re-installed and gears re-attached. Also the main wing mount point re-built and mount holes drilled.
The wing mount was actually pretty tricky because the wing has to be perfectly aligned so that the weight distribution is
even.
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The UltraStick repaired and ready to fly. Covered the top with self-adhesive ultracote that I got for free at
Flite Craft a local hobby store.
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The UltraStick peforms like new, I've flown many more flights with it since the crash without a problem.
And with the much bigger prog, it really soars. I can hover much more easily now but now I try it at much higher altitiude.
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