And now for a really embarrasing tale of disappointment... As I've mentioned in other places on my website, flying radio control planes is difficult and requires a certain type of philosophical outlook. If you are the type of person who would get really annoyed if you spent an hour getting everything ready to fly your plane, then found that it was too windy and you had to go home again, then in that case forget this hobby and do something else. If you would be tempted to just fly your plane anyway, even if you had far too little experience, and then saw your plane take off, loop the loop, and crash into the floor, totally destroying it on its very first ever flight, and if that would make you angry too, then... Well, let me tell you the whole story...
Several years after the disappointment of the Scamp, and before the joyous success of the Tipsy, I decided to try my hand at RC plane flying once again. I had been making free-flight electric powered planes, really small ones, and flying them in a large park, and having a lot of fun doing it. I then decided to buy a 4 channel receiver to replace the one destroyed in the Scamp incident, and get a couple of servos, and see if I could build a bigger free-flight plane, and somehow fangle radio-control into it. The experiment didn't really work because I didn't have a powerful enough motor, but it got me interested in RC flight again, and I decided to buy a GWS Pico Stik.
I can't really say why I chose this plane, but it was probably the price. It is a really cheap and simple aircraft, and it comes with the battery, charger, and other funny stuff right there in the box. I got the tinyest ESC you've ever seen, and a little GWS geared motor to run the thing. I thought that motor would be woefully underpowered, but as it turns out, it wasn't!
So, to describe the plane, it's a wooden stick with wings and a tail. These bits are made of red foam, moulded into old-fashioned looking wing shapes. I think it is inspired by a German WWI plane, but to me it looks like something that Dasterdley and Muttley would fly around in. The propellor is big, and it is on a geared motor, so it does give some oomph. Couple this with the fact that the whole plane weights almost nothing, and you can see that it should fly quite well.
As I was building the plane, I enjoyed the jaunty white plastic wheels, that are on that fantastically flimsy piece of wire poking out from below the Stik. Surely, I thought to myself, this plane should be placed on the ground, directed into the wind, and given a good blast of power, at which point it will dawdle along the ground for a bit, then drag itself into the air. I was clueless!
It didn't take long to build, and I took it down to the park, batteries fully charged. I was using a little set of NiMH batteries, and a ESC that can handle about 1 Amp and weighs around a gram. Of course, it was blowing a gale. Far too much wind for RC plane flying, at least for a beginner like me. But I decided that I might as well fly it anyway. This was a stupid and costly decision, and one that I now wouldn't make. I now know the pleasure of returning from a flying expedition, having never actually flown my plane at all, but with the plane still perfectly functioning, still in one piece, safely in the back of the car.
Ok, I'm standing in the park and I've checked that there are no teenagers or dog walkers around who might want to come over and chat with me while I'm trying to fly it. I put the plane on the ground where the grass is at its shortest, near the football goal. I point the plane into the wind, give a quick check that the rudder and elevator are working ok, then, for some stupid reason, absolutely GUN the throttle. Why did I do this? I'll never know. I should have held it in my hand, gradually increased the throttle until it felt like it was going to take off, then given it a gentle throw forwards. If only I had done this. But no.
What happened? The Pico Stick travelled forward about 2 inches, then leapt from the ground. It zoomed forwards, upwards, forwards, upwards, upwards more, until it was going straight up. Then it went over, along upside down, curved over more, and absolutley blasted its way into the hard, cruel earth. The entire flight lasted about 3 seconds, and utterly decimated my valuable new toy. The wings were smashed, the stick fuselage was shattered, the plastic bits were cracked, and the motor gearbox was split into three bits. It was a total disaster.
Ahhh... I don't know what more to say. Basically, don't be an idiot like me.
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