Slowstick kits

The regular SlowStick kit sells for $29.00..........every thing is included MINUS Tx,Rx, servos, battery, and charger. Recommendations: Buy the kit, Hitec Focus SS 3ch radio, MRC Super Brain charger, and a 600mAh NiMh battery. The deal for $195.00 is close to what I paid if I added everything up.........the one for $156.00....Id say great but I would investigate it further. Sounds to good to be true.....maybe it is??? Options latter on would be to a brushless setup with lipo's. Also, allot of people add ....like carbon fiber "this" and brass "that" to strengthen it........DONT............it adds weight. The SS flies fine with the stock motor and the plane is a tough little bird. Unless you are going to do some AP with it then I would suggest some wise modifications

Mike

The owner of the second link also sells on ebay, and you can probably get a much better deal, although you'll have to piece the total package together. Occasionally he has the whole meal deal, but not right now. I've bought from him several times on ebay with no problems. His ebay store is

The beauty of a Slow Stick is that it will accept a wide variety of components, all the way up to "standard" gear! You almost can't go wrong.

Another beauty of GWS is that they have flight packs for each plane they market, so there's no thought involved in picking components. You get the whole thing in a nice shrinkwrapped package. Just ask for a Slow Stick flight pack. All that's left is to buy a transmitter and battery charger.

That's what I like to hear. But, when I look at the "flight packs" (which I have a hard time finding - it seems that with so many combinations and components, many places make up their own "flight pack"), GWS has the 2080 and 2085 flight packs. I think the differnce depends on the transmitter you choose, correct?

I'm guessing here, but I'd assume that getting the "GWS" flight pack is more expensive than piecemeal, right? Just like putting a computer together out of parts is (sometimes) cheaper than buying one from Dell (if you know what you're doing!)?

Thanks for replying!

Mark

Went to the local Hobby USA and saw the Park Zone Slo-V. Now I'm looking into that as a possibility (great review on rcuniverse.com)

I think the only issue is, do I want a Tx that I can use on another plane?

Hmmmm. :)

Mark

The Slo-V is a cute plane and will perform similar to a stock Slowstick. The question you DO have to ask yourself is "Do I want a separate TX for every plane?" If you make the break and buy a standard TX, the cost per plane will drop with each new purchase.

How do I know? I have a Hobby Zone Transmitter and a Hitech 3 channel AM transmitter sitting on the shelf. While the Hitch could be used if I decided to buy an AM receiver, the Hobby Zone is a paper weight.

I now have a Futaba 7CAF and it will work with any future plane I buy plus I can buy any compatible receiver I want.

-- Dave Thompson

Hi Dave,

That's the question. The guy at the hobby store priced it out thus:

For each plane AFTER the investment of the radio and charger, it'd cost

plane - $45-65 rx - $24 xtal - $7

------------------- Total ~ $140 - $195

He indicated the SS total would be about $200, which is about what I priced online. But $140 for the Slo-V for a slow flyer, and $150-160 for the Aerobird Challenger for acrobatics, etc are hard to beat. I realized I wouldn't have the flexibility though.....

I've read somewhere that the SS will loop from level flight. Is that true? Is it true of the Slo-V as well?

Thanks!

Mark

The SS will loop from level flight.........hoop it up with a brushless and lipo's it will go vertical.. :-) OBTW the guy at the hobby shop is alittle off on his figures..............yo u can transfer RX , ESC, and batteries over to other planes if you wanna be "cheap"

Mike

I wrote up most of what you should know here:

yup. Both perform very similar.

I wouldn't say he is off on the figures but what was not taken into account is, the servos, receiver, battery, and esc can all be used in different planes which makes it less expensive.

figures..............yo

regarding flight packs etc.

I am in a similar position - I have an Aerobird Extreme and am pondering what to do next. Which plane, Tx etc.

On the one hand.... The Aerobird 3 channel transmitter is compatible with Parkzone Striker, the Slow-V etc. so it can work with other planes in the "family". I've had good luck with it, no complaints, good range, simple, etc.

On the other hand.... In glancing at Tx with model memory, the Futaba EX?? is about $99 alone. Seems like an excellent value. Much more flexible (like V Tail, Elerons?,) so it would take me far along the path. The arguments for going "open" are correct and compelling. Why else would "everyone" who gets the least bit serious get sytems outside of proprietary stuff (greater choice, better quality, future compatability)?

Also, I read an add in the Aug/Sept BackYard Flyer that HiTec has a 6 channel Tx with synthesized frequency (no crystal) so that would mean you could have planes with recievers set to various channels and use a single Tx without changing crystals in the field.

The AB tx is compatible with its sister planes, however, those planes are not available without a tx anyway so it doesnt matter (as far as i know) Oh, and the purpose of the synthesized tx is so that you could change freq at the field if someone else is using yours.

Yes. You have positive shift (JR, Airtronics) and negative shift (Hitec, Futaba, Multiplex(?)). The difference is in the receiver. GWS also makes transmitters on both shifts, and AFAIK, they offer a complete flight pack that includes transmitter.

No. It's more like trying to put together a car from individual parts.

These days, it's pretty difficult to put together a computer yourself for cheaper than you can buy one from Dell, especially when you take into account the software costs. You might come out ahead if you use a "free" OS like Linux, but then you can't use any mainstream applications, games, or many of the cool media offerings on the Web.

I guess this thread is now becoming OT..........but anyway. Building a car from individual parts will cost you. I will agree on that. As far as building a custom PC.....I disagree. You are far ahead of the game by custom building a PC EVEN if it goes a tad over as compared to a Dell. You get to chose the quality of hardware and software. Of course are we comparing low end PC's???? Then the Dell, Gateway, ect....win...maybe. There hi end PC's vs. a custom built hi end PC: The custom one wins out in price and quality.

Mike

I went through that exercise a while ago - as a long term Mac user had to get me a Windows box just so I could run Realflight G2. The custom build is very definitely the way to go - while some of those Dell etc seem cheap and are an easy buy, when things go wrong they can go wrong in a big way - things like having to buy a replacement genuine power supply - one from the mfg might cost you two or three times what a generic one would cost - and upgrading? well you may not be able to upgrade the video card or the sound, because the mother board on the bought system just doesn't allow for that.

And considering how quickly computers go out of date, the ability to upgrade should be a very important consideration when making your buy decision.

Also, by shopping around, (especially ebay and the smaller computer stores) you can get some very good bargains in componants that let you build a box for around the same price or less as you would pay for a locked in no/limited upgrade capacity 'bought one'.

David

Mike R wrote: ....As far as building a custom PC.....I disagree. You are far ahead of

- things like having to buy a replacement genuine power

Yep, my power supply on my tower 333cs died about 2 yrs ago and I had to buy a genuine power supply. If I wanted to replace my mother board or upgrade the CPU......forget about it.

Mike

Only if you want to burn up your packs. Don't buy it!