Miss Stik Laser Cut Kit

I have successfully built and flown well over 30 of my own model aircraft since 1988 including some of my own design. I was once known as the “test pilot” for new planes built by club members who wanted their first flight and trim-out to be done by experienced hands.

Recently I thought for the “Old Time” feel I’d try the Miss Stik, thinking a beginner’s kit would be a simple and fun project. Big mistake. First of all, for several reasons there is NO WAY a beginner should buy this kit. The instructions are sketchy and leave far too much unexplained. Beyond that, it seems the kit was put on the market without the all-important step of handing the kit over to a beginner, having him or her attempt the kit, and getting feedback on instructions that were difficult to understand so that clarification can be integrated into the manual. There is plenty of mystery in the building of the “Miss Take,” only because of scads of experience am I now even close to an airplane.

The manual consists of less than four pages of assembly instructions, plus a page of flying instructions. The tail building instructions are a scant four lines long. By comparison, a true beginner’s kit will usually give you at least two pages of tail building help (sometimes four or five) in a manual about 50 pages long, with each step clearly explained and illustrated. There are no illustrations in the Miss Stik manual. Not a single one. A beginner would be confused without plenty of visual aid. The pushrod assembly instructions consist only of “Radio and pushrod installation is left up to the modeler and his preferred techniques.” Preferred techniques? How would a beginner HAVE any preferred techniques?

The plan was no picnic either. You’ll need a very, very large building surface, about twice the size of a standard modeler’s building board. Alternatively, you can cut the plan into sections and build on a standard board, but you’ll need to frequently (and I do mean frequently) refer back to the portions that are not on the board. This proved to be very cumbersome.

Also, the wing hold-down dowel supports are each glued only to about an inch of balsa wood. Any sudden stress on the wing will rip the wing right off the balsa, converting it instantly into a nose-heavy ground-bound missile destined for complete destruction. I reinforced the dowel supports with hard wood glued to both the dowels and ply formers. Hardwood and ply will stand up to a lot more aerodynamic stress. Balsa dowel supports (or spars) will put you on a suicide mission – this I know from experience. Certainly a beginner’s plane should not invite trouble with excessive use of balsa in high-stress areas.

The tail section is poorly designed. You’ll need to be creative here to firmly attach it to the fuselage.

OK let’s assume you navigate these and a myriad of other building issues and complete the kit. You now have a very light, very fragile airframe. This is a one-crash kit. In installing the electronics I heard three different crunching sounds as I held the airframe gently to work on the kit. Have your woodworking and covering supplies at the ready for repair jobs throughout the building process. Due to the many reworks necessary during building, I am still trying to complete the kit after three weeks.

Covering is just as difficult. There are contours all over the place and no amount of stretching or shrinking will get all of the wrinkles out. To the rear of the cabin area there are odd angled sections on either side – a twisted fuselage design that just will not take a smooth covering job. Also, the bottom of the fuselage is triangular, so you’ll need to balance the fuse on something (trying not to crack any of the 1/8” square supports on the underside) while you work on covering and installation of the radio components. For best results, a third and fourth hand are needed to do these tasks. The tail sections are only 1/8” thick - top and bottom covering like to stick to each other while being put on, creating ugly little divots in the surface. I was able to work most of them out, but not all of them. Even before the maiden flight, there are patches in the covering. Sort of kills the reason for using transparent covering.

My first airplane saw exactly 12 crashes before I got it in the air on lucky 13. That was a foam plane made to survive a few crashes. As a beginner, I promise you, you will crash. Make sure your beginner’s kit is sturdy. This is not a sturdy airplane by any stretch of the imagination. On your first crash, you’ll be going home with a bag of sticks and no idea which one came from where. Along with your bag-o-mystery-wood you’ll have a radio, servos, motor, and ESC you can use for a more worthy plane. Please do not be discouraged! Just get a good kit. It is worth the work.

After all the building snafus (even for a very experienced builder), it came out ugly and fragile and was a bear to assemble. This is a great way to scare would-be modelers out of the hobby on their first try. Just get yourself a good Sig, Goldberg or Great Planes beginner’s kit. I still have my Gentle Lady, Mirage 550, Sig Smith Miniplane, Sig Seniorita, House of Balsa 2x4, a few electric sailplanes, and others, most of which I built long ago that have given me many great flights. My Mirage was built in four days in June 1990 and it still flies great! The Miss Stik purchase is a highly regrettable one.

Bought this kit to build with my son age 12 a couple years ago. We've both put over 100 flights on it and it remains our favorite plane to fly. This was the first RC plane either of us ever flew.

We bought a brushless motor similar to the Axi but a lot cheaper. My favorite battery is 3cell lipo 2400mah which gives nearly an hour of flight time without catching any thermals.

Cons: It's not as easy to build as advertised, but not bad if you have the time. The only laser cut parts are the formers in the fuselage. So you have to cut a lot of sticks. The kit was originally designed for heavier batteries and motor so you may have to add weights to the nose cowl. We've crashed this plane several times and my only complaint is I'm not aware of any place that sells a replacement cowl. We've been gluing ours back together and need a new one but don't want to buy a whole kit just to get the cowl. I suppose if you don't crash you won't have this problem!

Pros: Great flying plane especially in calm winds. But I've also flown it in 15+ mph wind after getting some experience. Very beautiful plane, long flight times. Instructions and plans are thorough and well written. It's easy to set up the controls and install the motor. Lots of room in the cabin for everything to fit easily.

I would buy one again if given the choice and have recommended it to friends.

I was disappointed with the kit. Very poor quality (extremely light) balsa and the "broken rib" construction made the wing very difficult to keep free of warps. The very light tail construction also contributed to me having a hard time keeping my model "true". I rebuilt the stab to overcome this problem. I was never able to get the model to fly straight and level at launch and subsequently dinged it a couple of times. I have finally given up on it and have moved on to a more substantial electric sailplane.

I bought and built this kit a couple of years ago. It builds quickly, flies great, but a bit too fragile for me. I have meat hooks for hands so I managed to break something almost every time I took it out. With that said, it still flew great and was easy to repair. This is not for someone who just wants to throw the plane into the car and go fly, it requires a bit of care and a light touch when handling.

Because of the frail structure, I gave this 4 stars and not 5. If I had to rate it on how well it flies, it is a 5 star performer all the way!

I have flown this aircraft for quite some time and have to rave about its positive characteristics. The kit went together flawlessly and looks great. The airplane flies on nearly no power and has the capability to fly nearly forever. Many newcomers have flown my aircraft and have found it to be very easy to learn on, it comes in very slow and is nearly impossible to stall. Great airplane!