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Balsa USA Stick #3
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This is the fourth plane I built. My third plane was a Great Planes Trainer 40. It was a great plane to fly, but was lost in
an unfortunate accident due to pilot error. I think it's called "cocky pilot syndrome" or something similar. I was
flying about 1/2 of a mistake high, and I made one full mistake. Sadly, it was beyond repair, and Great Planes no longer
makes the kit.
This Stick 40 was born early enough that it shared the skies with that Trainer 40. I built it in 1992, and it still looks
pretty good. There are a few dents and dings here and there - mostly from the dreaded hangar rash - and there is a crack
line where I once accidentally kicked the tail fin off, but overall it's still in good shape.
It was my intent to build this plane as "perfectly" as possible. I didn't want any misalignments in the tail or warps in
the wing, etc. So I took my time. And, as I was getting older and working more, my free time became more limited. As a
result, it took a long time to build this plane. Probably a couple of years. It doesn't fly any better than any of my
other Stick 40s, so I guess the extra attention didn't really matter.
The color scheme was a result of a woman who had inspired and befriended me in an acting class I was taking at the
community college in the town where I lived at the time. These were her favorite colors. Ironically, she never got to
see the completed airplane. She simply disappeared one day without a word, presumably headed to Nevada as she once
mentioned she wanted to go.
Anyway, aside from the color scheme, this plane was built with a purpose in mind. It was to be the first to carry custom
modules that I could attach to the bottom of the plane to perform various functions. One module I created was, of
course, a bomb-drop hatch. I have dropped mostly parachutes and candy from this module (the candy was for kids that were
attending a family day at the flying club where I was flying at the time). Another module has a camera in it, allowing me
to fly up and take pictures. I got some interesting pictures of the flying field, and also some interesting pictures of
the beach in Mexico where I vacationed once.
Another module, which I never finished, had a harmonica in it. I'm not sure what was in my mind when I came up with this
one - I guess I just wanted to have my plane make some horrible noise as it performed a low fly-by in front of spectators.
But this module has never flown. Probably never will.
Since I built this plane with the intention of taking care of it, I rarely subject it to my normal style of flying (which
is somewhere between psychotic and criminally insane). Instead, I fly it around in circles and do a few touch-n-goes with
it. Although, I do take it up once in a while to take a picture or to drop a parachute. I haven't dropped any
calculators from it, but I am interested in new ideas. I was thinking maybe a water balloon.
The first time I took this plane out was an interesting experience. After I loaded it up in the back of my car, I got in
the driver's seat and closed my door. It was a hot summer day, which meant it was even hotter inside the car. Before I
could start the car, I heard a noise coming from the back of the car. Bonk. Boink. Ping. Pop. At first, I
couldn't figure out what was happening. Then I saw it...
The left wing panel on the airplane was so well made that it was literally air tight. The heat of the car was causing the
air inside the wing to expand, and the wing was beginning to swell like a balloon. I quickly got out and took the wing
out of the car and back in the house to cool off before it popped. I think I saved it just in time. It was truly one of
the strangest (and most humorous) experiences I have had on a flying excursion - and I hadn't even left home, yet!
I poked a tiny hole in the wing with a hobby knife, and used the heat gun to tighten the Monokote back up (it had
stretched a bit), and I was off to the field. I have actually kept a log of most of the flights I have made with this
aircraft. Actually, maybe only about half the flights have been logged. Its first flight was logged on July 27, 1992,
and its last "recorded" flight was on July 26, 1997.
July 26, 1997 was when it suffered its first (and only) crash. It was another classic case of losing the landing gear,
but this was a bit more spectacular. The really bizarre thing about this crash is that even though the plane hit the
ground at full throttle, there was barely a scratch on it. Even the propeller survived!
It was the last flight of the day. I mean, it was intended as such. I just didn't expect it to end the way it did.
There is no note in my log as to whether I was flying diesel at this time (the plane currently has a diesel engine on it),
but I did make a note that the engine was running well that day. The plane was notorious for having problems with its
glow engine, so I suspect that is what I was referring to.
This crash ranks near the top of the list of strange sensations while flying a model airplane. I brought the plane over
the field for a very long, low, high-speed pass over the center of the runway from left to right. The throttle was wide
open, and the plane was approaching in perfect form. It screamed past me about as fast as a Stick 40 can go (65 MPH? 70
MPH?) and I did what I could to maintain level flight over the runway. However, the plane began to sink for no apparent
reason. I gave some input to go up, and it continued to sink. More up, more sink. It was a very helpless...shall I
say "sinking"...feeling.
All I could do was watch as the plane made contact with the ground. It had run out of runway at that point, so was headed
straight for the dirt. Before I could cut the throttle, the plane made contact. The speed was too great, and its rate of
descent was too firm; the landing gear came right off the plane, leaving it to come down flat on its belly.
The plane slid in the dirt for an estimated 100 feet or so before it came to rest. When I rushed out to assess the
damage, I was surprised to find that there almost wasn't any. Most of the damage came from the landing gear being ripped
from its mounts - a corner of plywood was bent up slightly. There was a ding in the tail boom, and a small chunk knocked
out of the stabilizer, both due to running over the detached landing gear. The bottom of the plane didn't have a scratch
on it. The tail wheel was enough to keep the airframe off the ground, while the spinner took the brunt of the slide.
Only a small area on the fuselage behind the spinner sported any additional scratch marks.
To this day, I still do not know what caused the plane to descend like it did. Perhaps there was a down draft, or
perhaps the signal wasn't getting through somehow. I tend to think it was a down draft since the plane did not bounce
back into the air after making contact with the ground. But it was a very calm day, so...who knows?
I know I have flown this plane since then, because I have flown it several times with the diesel engine on it. I simply
have no entries in the log. I was never very good about keeping records. But as with all my planes, I hope to be flying
it long into the future.
Copyright 2002
11/20/2002