Hello! I am searching some nice design, of an all balsa, hand launched , glider, for my 4 year old son.
My idea is to build a nice, easy to build and good flyer model for my son.
Some plan to download from internet? Or someone could send me via E-mail a copy of a plan?
Thanks and regards!!

I have recently kitted up two designs, and we do a third.

Keil Kraft Polaris, Comet and Spook2.

Kits, plans and downloadable plans available on the Replikit site.
The comet looks to be a seriously good chuckie.

These are lo res scales of the real plans.

If you are on a budget, help yourself

very nice planes!! and great cad 3d drawingtoo.
I'll see if someone else send me more plans, and i'll see what to do. but my son will have the last desicion!! :-))
Thanks for the help

Someone that I know made a glider very similar to the Polaris. Flys like a dream. I was just hand launching it, barely tossing it. I was getting 60 foot + flights. And so little force! The only difference was mine has a carbon-fiber rod tail boom. That would make it more durable especially for a smaller kid. good luck!

There is just what you need in the last issue of Flying Models.

Keep in mind that YOUR expectation of good performance and your son's will be wildly different. At four years old I strongly suspect he'll have some trouble with getting consistent and accurately positioned launches. So a model that is tough and very stable is a big plus over one that has good thermal performance. And ultimately, given the "enthusiasm" of the typical 4 year old, must be considered as expendable. So while Vintage's offerings are delightful to the max I'd suggest that they are fancier with more building time than you want to give into the care and use of your young son. Also if he is going to a big part of the construction team the lovely curved shapes that us older types smile about will just confound the developing hand skills and hand to eye coordination of a four year old to extremes.

A bunch of years back I worked with a beaver scout group of 6 to 8 year olds and while they did fine with a very basic all balsa trainer glider it was apparent that they were right at the ragged edge of handing the knives, sandpaper and glueing duties. So again simple shapes are going to be winners over more aesthetic designs.

Nothing says that you cant "square up" the plans you see here and make then any old size you want. There's also fun to be had with making up flying saucers (actually disc shaped flying wings), delta wing models, profile scale'ish jet style models and even trying out bird like models. The key to making any of these fly decently is to ensure a 2 to 4 degrees of negative incidence in the tail compared to the wing or in the case of "flying wings" to steam bend in a bit of reflex at the trailing edge. Flat 1/16 to 1/8 sheet for wings with the edges rounded a little is fine for the rough and tumble duties that your son will subject them to. Don't overthink the design aspect in some misplaced quest for optimum performance. Simple, dirty and loopy with anything around a 10 second flight time will produce instant delight. To us 10 seconds is nothing. But to a 4 year old it'll seem like eternity. Remember how long it used to be between birthdays and Christmas? When we're young we experience time differently. Your son will giggle with delight at models that when tossed loop over and almost hit him in the back of the head. And he'll howl with delight if the loop ends up in the back of YOUR head. The best part is that these hack and try style models in the 8 to 12 inch span size range can be easily flown in your back yard.

So don't overthink this stuff. Just start sketching any old design and try it. Even if it turns out to be a total dud you'll be out of pocket at most a buck and a half for the wood. Meanwhile you'll learn a lot about designing that will aid YOU in learning how some of this stuff works as well as having a lot of fun with your boy. So get out a sketch pad and dream up a few flights of fancy. Just remember to keep the tail a touch more negative than the wing or with a flying wing that the most rearward part has to have some reflex to get stable. For more complex shapes keep in mind the way the wood bends if you want to add some camber. But for this sort of duty and size just leaving the wood flat and rounding the edges a little is all you need to do.

EDIT- just thought I'd add in some suggestions for wood sizes. For up to 8 inch span use 1/16 for the wings and either 1/16 or 1/32 for the tail surfaces. For the fuselage 1/8 hard or 3/16 medium for stick shapes or 1/8 medium to hard for deeper profile shapes on the more scale like designs. For more around 12 inch span go for 3/32 or 1/8 for the wings. With 1/8 you'll want to work more of a taper into the leading and trailing edges to shave off a couple of grams of weight or they WILL come in more like flying bricks. For this size the tails will be best in 1/16. Fuselage sticks would be 1/4 x 1/2 or for deeper scale'ish shapes made from 3/16 medium to hard. All these sizes are thicker than best if you're looking at duration but again these are intended to survive the care of a 4 year old for at least an afternoon of fun so a bit thicker and heavier is a good thing.

thanks BMatthews!! thats is why i asked about all-balsa glider, without ribs or something more time consuming. I made two, one a very nice glider, "tHe juniors pride". It flew well, but not as I expected, and it took a bit more work., the other a almost competition HLG balsa glider (the Lounchbox, from a old MAN magazine) But the only way to do a great flyght is with a great hand launch technick. I made really incredible flights with it, but for my son it is dificult to hand launch, with the necesary speed.
But i know there are nice designs, with nice glides. The adeventage of my son, is that he loves model airplanes, and he is never tired to improve the flights skyls.
Thanks for your advises!!!

Originally Posted by BobaFett1138

Someone that I know made a glider very similar to the Polaris. Flys like a dream. I was just hand launching it, barely tossing it. I was getting 60 foot + flights. And so little force! The only difference was mine has a carbon-fiber rod tail boom. That would make it more durable especially for a smaller kid. good luck!

Thanks for the advise. It seems to be what my son needs. meybe some link to download the plan?
Thanks

Originally Posted by Jim Thomerson

There is just what you need in the last issue of Flying Models.

i'm a subscriber of the fm magazine. regratably i have had horrible custom help experience with this publication. The last 8 issues( yes, eight) never arrived. I asked 10 times about this problem, to diferent people of the staff, and nobody gave me a reply. I'm very sad, because i am subscriber since a lot of years, and I love this magazine, but this last year experience was enough for me.
about your advsie of the article, it is sure a great help for my question.
Thanks!!

I made a simple chuckie out of depron for a friends kid. Kept it going with hot glue for almost three days..

Depron and hot glue will make a dozen 6" gliders very quickly, disposable type. They are terrific fun. If they have a fair bit of decalage, dihedral and a forward CG, they will always sort themselves out even if thrown out of the window..

Originally Posted by kitfoxkid

Thanks for the advise. It seems to be what my son needs. meybe some link to download the plan?
Thanks

I do not have plans for it, but go here.

http://www.theplanpage.com/prev.htm

good glider plans are on the: april '05, may '05, feb '06, and july '04 sections. Good luck!!!

Originally Posted by vintage1

I made a simple chuckie out of depron for a friends kid. Kept it going with hot glue for almost three days..

Depron and hot glue will make a dozen 6" gliders very quickly, disposable type. They are terrific fun. If they have a fair bit of decalage, dihedral and a forward CG, they will always sort themselves out even if thrown out of the window..

Thanks!! The idea of Depron is very good. maybe i can build some balsa model plan in Depron, it seems it is posible .
Thanks!

Originally Posted by BobaFett1138

I do not have plans for it, but go here.

http://www.theplanpage.com/prev.htm

good glider plans are on the: april '05, may '05, feb '06, and july '04 sections. Good luck!!!

The april ´05 is very nice. The other ones are a bit more dificult to build. And I think i'll give a try to the Kiwi model, of the July ´04.
Thanks!!

I know you requested balsa but have you seen the egg carton glider? They will take a "beating" and fly pretty good. You can make one in about 3 min.

Follow the link: http://www.modelaircraft.org/education/priceless.aspx

Zach

Originally Posted by Tail Spin1

I know you requested balsa but have you seen the egg carton glider? They will take a "beating" and fly pretty good. You can make one in about 3 min.

Follow the link: http://www.modelaircraft.org/education/priceless.aspx

Zach

Thanks Zachs!!! I seems to be a nice flyer. The only problem is that I live in argentina, and this type of egg cartons are not available here. sorry.