Model: GWS Pico Stick Type: El cheapo parkflier Status: Active Weight:  6.25 oz Controls: R/E/Thr Wing Span: 36" Wing Area: ~245"sq. Airfoil: Egg crate undercambered Wing Loading: 3.7 oz/ft.sq

I bought this little guy for $40 so that I would have something to fly on the lake behind my house when it froze in the winter. A GWS flight pack (RX, 2 MX-30 servos, and a 6 cell flight pack) for $150 finished off the set, making it positively the cheapest model I've ever built to date. I've had a lot of fun buzzing around the lake, and even in the cul-de-sac in front of my house, so I can't say that I haven't got my money's worth. I made quite a few improvements to the model to get it closer to what I would call "airworthy". The bamboo dowel joiner idea looked bad from the output, so I just epoxied the wing halves together and called that good enough. I ran a string between the wing tips to provide some dihedral, and rubber-banded the wing to the plastic wing mounts. With nothing to provide stiffening to a wing that's essentially just egg-crate material, it was a little floppy on the first flights. I eventually epoxied a couple of 10" bits of carbon-fibre pushrod to the LE and TE, and the wing is now almost unbreakable (in the center). Seeing as how I didn't like the idea of heavy wire pushrods going to the control surfaces (I made them full-flying BTW), I just ran thread through the supplied plastic guides. I used a couple of the extra servo horns to complete a light pull-pull setup. Eventually I added a seventh cell to the flight pack too, just for a little more punch, and it's been flying just fine ever since. If you right-click on the above photos for a "view image" you can see more detail. Yes, one of the cables to the elevator is broken...I snagged it on my FeatherCut a couple of days before I took the photos. Very repairable - it's already back in the air. Probably the best $40 you can spend on a kit! Back?