Well, finally the neighbour with the table saw got my stringers cut - from clear pine 

Now the good news; up above some where I noted that the spruce stringer weighed 9.5 gms each on the pivot scale I set up. Well the pine only weights 7gm on the same 46 inch pivot 

So all 54 pine stringers will weigh .83119 lb at the tail, a savings of .306 lbs at the tail. AND, with my nose to tail ratio of 5.411,  an additional 1.655 lb to balance at the nose...total weight savings of 1.961 lb. 

So without doing anything I've built almost 2 lb "off" the final weight 

Gotta love it when something seems to work out...

Well, starting the stringers  all 54 of 'em! After the top center one is in, everything else is pairs.... don't know if it's visible on the front view, but there is a line up mark on the table under the firewall, and I'm also lined up with a seam on the wall behind (actually the picture is slightly to one side)... so place a pair of stringers on...check the alignment, glue the front 2 formers, check the alignment, glue 2 more...and etc...

In front of the sloping "head rest former" on top there should be a solid sheet, but I'm going to put in a cockpit  so I'm doubling up the stringers along there to hopefully reinforce things enough.

over the years lots of screams have been heard in Viet Nam... no one cared 

Brian, I've spent a lot  of time trying to figure out how to build this thing lighter but no joy    Massive firewall, but I need the weight to balance the tail  Various versions have been reported from 22 pounds to 35 pounds 

I hope to hit the 25 lb mark - might be achievable because some of the '80s building techniques are "heavy", but there seem to be practical limits to how much can be taken off...

Fingers wrote on Aug 28^th, 2013 at 10:30am:



I was trying to indicate what a great job you are doing.

waverider wrote on Aug 29^th, 2013 at 9:43pm:



wasn't flaming you Brian... if I could combine precision and quality, AND lighten the 4kn thing up, I'D be selling plans for it.... frustrating to have this great looking planform, and know that weight thingy is always there....

and every once in a while I like to pop the cowl on and dream a bit..

something else I'm doing a bit different...plans call for the stringers to be 1/8 x 1/4, which makes them flush with the edges of the formers - then once the sheeting is on the front and under the tail tack a 1/8 square balsa strip on each stringer make them flush with the new sheeting to give that "stringer" look..what I'm doing, is making the stringers 1/8 x 3/8. I put them on, mark where the sheeting will end, then I'm stripping each stringer back to the 1/4..
they fit flush up front, but present as stringers along the back sides...    That's about as clear as mud isn't it...

If you look closely, you can see the notched stringers starting at former 7, the second of the half formers..in pic 1, right above the battery pack sitting on the table..

doubt if that pack would even spin the prop - probably something like a 22x10 3 blade is scale...that I'll get figured in about 2 years...

that would be sweet, and if I wasn't having a colon thingy tomorrow  I'd thnk about going....

that's what you get when you type on a tablet with auto correct. 

I know it's wayyyy early  , but looking for source of 1/5 scale WWII British pilot figure......with that I can monkey around with a cockpit while I carve stringers....