A website to log the progress of building a footlaunched glider from plans. The plans were bought in 2010, but I don't expect to have this completed for maybe five years !
It has been a while since I last updated this page... too much Real Life stuff getting in the way. The house is going on the market soon, so I cannot have too much mess going on - so things are slow. Check back for updates though - I will be cracking on again soon I hope, and the ply is here !
This website is were I am documenting the whole of the building process for this project - my first attempt at building anything larger than about five or six foot span model gliders many years back.
I bought the plans at the end of 2010, with building finally starting in March 2011. The latest work done is listed below, with the most recent at the top. The menu on the left will take you to the more detailed pages, with some pictures.
I hope to build a picture gallery in the future, but I will leave that until I have a few more pictures to make it worthwhile to build and visit.
Latest updates (most recent first)
- After a layoff due to neck pain keeping me away from the build for a while, then catching up on some jobs, and going on holiday, I've started back working on this. The ribs for the fin are done, and I'm working my way through the stab ribs too. The spar caps for the front fin spar have now been cut down to the required profiles, so I will start work on this spar very soon now.
- The wood has now arrived to build the fin spars, the stab spars, and the ribs for both. That should be enough to keep me busy for a little while now. I've started work on the ribs, and have jigs set up so that I can build up to five ribs without needing to wait for the glue to dry. I will need to get some balsa for the ends of the diagonal ribs, and also for the nose ribs and trailing edges.
- The elevator ribs and spar are both complete, bar the ply. The spar is the first part that I have built that is bigger than me! Pictures to follow soon. The next wood order (which will cover building the fin and stab) has now been placed. As a point of interest (I'm sure you've been waiting for this) the parts that I have built so far have a combined weight of around 350g.
- I have now built a jig for the smaller ribs (i.e. rudder, elevator, and ailerons), and have built the spruce structure of the rudder ribs so far.
Total hours so far : 43:00
Total cost so far : £837.08
Matt