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I finished my first build of this model today. I decided to build it as light as I possibly could. I did this by printing the color parts on copy paper and the cardstock on 65 lb stock. I began the assembly with a single piece for the full fuselage length. For this part I removed the rudder and top fin. The next two laminations were approximately 1/2 of the fuselage, ending just behind the wing trailing edge. I added two laminations for the nose only and then covered all of these with the color fuselage full halves that were printed on the light weight paper. So the nose has five card laminations the center fuselage has three card laminations and the aft fuselage has only one.
The wings are only one piece of cardstock along with the color piece printed on thin paper. I attached them to the fuselage with tabbed pieces on the underside as shown in the last photo. For the wing, I used a leading edge/wing root support piece on each side. The leading edge supports allowed me to fold a leading edge "slat" in the front of each wing. This is visible in the overhead view. Finally I mounted the wing almost a full inch forward of the location indicated. I did that to improve the effectiveness of the elevator.
The model came in a 10 grams so I was very pleased with the result. To achieve a level glide I needed to trim in quite a bit of "up" elevator as you can see in one of the side views. With that adjustment and a firm toss in a slightly nose down attitude the model flew very well. In fact it flies nearly as well as a foam glider that I made back in the Spring. I included a photo of the foam glider alone and along with the hun for comparison.
Outside I tried a few flights just before dark. I launched the plane with a firm downward toss over a gentle downslope. The best flight ended by crashing into a tree about fifty feet away. The total distance covered was about 70 feet as the model completed a sweeping turn to the right.
The wings were mounted with an angle of incidence of zero and the elevator with about a -1 degree incidence.
For the next build I will probably eliminate the printing on thin paper, use two laminations for wings, tail and fuselage. I will then add laminations to the center and nose of the fuselage to make the model slightly nose heavy. Finally I will increase the negative incidence of the elevator.
Curt
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