> I have 2 Litestick drive systems and have fun with the Litestick, but
> it is often too windy to fly the Litestick where I live and I don't
> have access to an indoor facility. Is there a plane that can use the
> Litestick drive system and can handle some wind? 5-15 mph?Some of the reasons it doesn't fly well in windy weather is that it's too slow (draggy) for good penetration, it has too light a wing loading and is a little fragile.
Since you already have the plane, you might as well "adapt" it to your needs. Start by cutting down the wings an inch or so at a time until you're happier with how it flies. At this point you'll find that the tail is too large so you can fix this by cutting 1-2" off the ends of the stab, and you can also slide the tail closer to the wing a little bit (cut down fuse off at the front till everything balances.
Switch to a GWS 9x7 prop which has faster pitch speed and will perform better and ..... VIOLA....
you end up (for approximately $3 or so for the new prop) with a less draggy, faster, more responsive, less prone to damage plane that will be better in the wind. It might still not be all that great, and you will probably still want to get something more suited for your situation, but I suspect that when you finish you'll have found this to be an interesting and useful exercise.
You'll notice I didn't say anything about lighter because this may actually be a bad thing if what you're looking for is higher wing loading and better penetration. A few years ago I'd attached a Cox .020 to the nose of 56" WS HLG, It flew just great on a couple of no-wind days, but the first time I tried it on a slighlty windy day the thing was totally unflyable because it just couldn't penetrate worth beans. So we looked around and after stealing every bit of lead from the fieldboxes of everybody at the field it was a little better, but still not great. After a bit more head scratching I finally took a 6" adjustable wrench and attached it underneath the fuselage with a couple of rubber bands and guess what? the thing now flew great and would go in any direction regardless of the wind. The stall speed was higher but still no problem and it was basically a great little plane (except that I got tired of cleaning sand and other junk that would stick to the motor, fuse and everything else from the glow fuel).
If anybody's curious about the "technical data" I ended up with 3 ozs of lead in addition to the wrench which was 4 ozs for a total of 7 ozs of ballast and the plane was a Klingberg "Fling Thing".
I don't really expect that you'll end up having to ballast your Light Stick, but just remember that for good behaviour in high wind lightness is not necessarily a goal.
Cheers,
Gabe
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