Clipped-wing Slow Stick

Also a balsa tail section

Unlike many GWS or other branded kits, the Slow Stick will actually fly as shipped, assuming you can get decent batteries. Balance is important, but the flexibility of the kit allows you the luxury of moving things around to get it right.
However, as designed the plane has an enormous washout flair at the tips that turns it into a sail. Even the slightest breeze makes it nearly unflyable. (The dork in the next picture is there for scale. This is not a small plane!

So I chopped off the tips to arrive at the configuration seen in the top picture. It flew much better! Less wind sensitive and more responsive to what are -- at best -- sluggish controls.
Also, since I was trying to learn on this silly thing, I kept crashing it. In particular, the tail feathers were just too delicate, so I remade them from tape-reinforced balsa and they are still in good shape to this day.
It's slow, ponderous, weirdly fun and a heavy lifter often used as a camera platform. I intend to try to adapt it to tow small gliders wayyyy up.

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