Finally finished my first Bubble Dancer. I had wanted to build one for some time but I knew it was going to be a large commitment of time to do it right.
Construction probably took about 100 hours, started it November 2013. There were many times when I just had to walk away from it for a while. If something was not to my liking, I redid it. Final weight is 35 OZ, 4 ounces more than Mark Drelas' prototype. I could have made target weight pretty easily but felt a few ounces over would not hurt that much. Someday I'll build another. I would just try to make the wingtips a bit lighter. I wouldn't change a thing about the design & construction. I have modified almost every plane I have built, but not this one; it is a masterpiece of design & engineering.

Thanks to Terry Johnson for supplying me with some major parts. A big thanks goes out to Mark Haley (http://aviatorstudio.net/) for his fine website that describes some of the tricky details of a BD build. That saved me a lot of re-do or mistake time.

That is one gorgeous Bubble Dancer. It looks like 100 hours very well spent.

35 oz seems very decent for this big bird.

I hope you have many years of thermal joy with this beauty.

Congratulations on a great build!!!

Craig

I agree, Very Beautiful.

So besides the wing tips where do you think the other excess weight is?

But I must say that 35 oz. for a ship that size is light!

Originally Posted by GarryOgilvie

I agree, Very Beautiful.

So besides the wing tips where do you think the other excess weight is?

But I must say that 35 oz. for a ship that size is light!

The boom is about 15 grams heavy, I decided to paint the fuse and that probably added another 30-40 grams. I think the bulk of the excess weight is in the wing sheeting. I used what I had on hand which was not bad but not per Mark Drelas' spec. He specs tip sheeting to be 4 LB, increasing in weight twords the center of wing. Next time I will be much more careful i selecting & carefully weighing this.

Originally Posted by craigrrr

That is one gorgeous Bubble Dancer. It looks like 100 hours very well spent.

35 oz seems very decent for this big bird.

I hope you have many years of thermal joy with this beauty.

Congratulations on a great build!!!

Craig

Thanks Craig now its time to trim it out. I only have a few hand tosses, and have to even out the washout between wings, play with the elevator incidence & CG.

Hey Tim,

Congratulations on finishing your Bubble Dancer! I think 35oz on your first BD is fantastic - I'm guessing that you beat my first BDs weight by about 6 oz. (Just a guess since I never actually weighed it) It took me a second try to get the weight right.

Love the blue covering. I'm going to be using blue on BD #3.

I have to agree with you on the engineering of this bird - it is truly fantastic.

As to wingtip weight - On BD#1 I did the extended tips, but on #2 I did the shorter wing. Part of that choice was for reduced weight, but ultimately the very careful selection of tip sheeting had the most impact. Even so, my tips came out at 116 grams - covered, which is 9 grams over the design...

Again. Congratulations!

Mark

Originally Posted by clwhipper

Finally finished my first Bubble Dancer. I had wanted to build one for some time but I knew it was going to be a large commitment of time to do it right.
Construction probably took about 100 hours, started it November 2013. .

Looks good. Congrats.

What fuselage did you use? I don't recognize it.

The Bubble Dancer is a wonderful soaring machine. I love mine which is also about 35 ounces.

Wow…Congratulations clwhipper. Encouraging seeing someone bring a Bubble Dancer project to fruition and get it airborne. I’m about 16 months into a 3 plane project. One per plan, I’m using as a control, and two rather exotic material versions.

Originally Posted by DrewV

Looks good. Congrats.

What fuselage did you use? I don't recognize it.

I wish I knew. Its very nicely done in Kevlar with CF in the right spots.
I got it from a guy who got it from a guy... from "some dude in Pensacola"

Originally Posted by Capt. Gary

Wow…Congratulations clwhipper. Encouraging seeing someone bring a Bubble Dancer project to fruition and get it airborne. I’m about 16 months into a 3 plane project. One per plan, I’m using as a control, and two rather exotic material versions.

I got my inspiration from others as well. There are quite a few good builders out there.

What pod and boom did you use?

Originally Posted by MicroRotors

What pod and boom did you use?

I was owner #3 I believe so I'm not sure.
Boom is from ? but maybe Mountain models
http://www.mountainmodels.com/produc...products_id=42