Other People's LiteSTICKs -
Kasra Naghshineh
Kasra sent me this picture of his highly modified LiteSticks.
All of them use the GWS R4P Rx, Hitec HS-50's, Pixie 7P speed
control and a homemade base-loaded antenna.
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First modified LiteStik has a box fuselage made from a
3"-wide sheet of 1/32" balsa. The GWS drive uses an
APC 8"x6" prop. There is a removable landing gear but this is
not shown in the picture. The bamboo rods are supported by
an aluminum tube and the wing is glued together with Pro-Bond.
I have gotten 1 hour flights with 650-720 8-cell NiMHs. It
weighs around 7-7.5 Oz with the 8-cell 300s. (It flew out of
sight overhead one day but I had my name on there and I got it
back all intact.)
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The second one has ailerons and V-tail. The motors are doubled
up as you see. I used a 1/16" balsa spacer opposite the
existing motor and glued the second motor on followed by a
strap. It will fly inverted all day but it came out heavy since
I got carried away with making the fuselage pretty. It weighs
around 8 ozs. ready to go and it will hang on the prop at the
beginning of the charge.
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The flying wing is called Zagi-Stik and it uses all the stock
LiteStik parts except for the GWS 8"x6" prop. I built the wing
flat on the workbench with a wing sweep of 150 degree included
angle (15 degree on each wing), so if one wing is parallel to
your workbench, the other is 30 degrees off. There is no dihedral
at the center but the LiteStik wings have a little washout by
themselves. It weighs 6.25 ozs with the 8-cell 300 mAh NiMHs
and I consistently get 20 minute flights (I have flown longer
by catching thermals). It will fly inverted and it does tight
loops. Rolls are very slow and due to wing flexing sometimes
it falls out. I am still experimenting with it and I think you
can make one around 6 ozs. but already it has become my favorite.
Right now I am exploring how to make the it more aerobatic. It
loops tightly and some have compared it to a Mini-IFO but it
won't roll very quickly and I think I need to stiffen the wings.
You can see the size of the elevons in the picture. They are about 1" in chord at the root and 2" at the tip. I have some 5 degree reflex in the elevons. The reflex varies based on the battery size used (thank god you don't have to compensate for electrons burned although sometimes I feel that way.) The nyrods used are Sullivan 1/32" cable in a tube. I was worried about the cables navigating the curve under the wing. The servos are at the wing root in the thickest portion of the airfoil. The servo head faces forward and they push/pull the cable which goes out span-wise and turns ninety degrees to hook up to the horns. The bamboo sticks are put on first and wings are joined using aluminum tubes. The fuselage is a piece of EPP packing foam that was about to be thrown out. I cut it to a tear drop shape using a saw and scissors. The first day after I finished it I ran with it lightly held in my hand and it felt pretty good so I turned the motor on and away it went. It has a very flat glide. Ron Fikes told me put a line at 15% back from each wing LE and where they cross, that is where the CG should be. The CG point now is 3.75" from the trailing edge but I have not measured to see if this matches the 15% point or not. After a while I fried the motor on the Zagi-Stik. I replaced it with a carbon brush motor which should handle the 8-cell much better. The motor frying was my fault. I put on a heavy 8-cell pack (720s) and had the motor full blast for about 15 minutes. When I fly with the 300s, I am usually at 1/3 throttle stick. I am pretty sure even the standard motors don't mind that. |
Click HERE to ask Kasra any questions.
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