Before I waste any more time on this, are you folks sure
that this tiny little fragile structure is going to support an
electric motor, batteries, receiver and servos?

Seems like this kind of building use to be easier when my
fingers were smaller, my eyes were better, and my hands
didn't shake quite so much.

Not at all.I think your one of the great experimenters of the group,since ive been moving more to slowflyers lately.Ive learned more from you and the fellow e-zoners for free,than my microflight subscription,not to mention saving a great deal on motors and batteries.Keep it rollin.And yes im pretty sure you can make it fly.

You have a real problem if you try to put that wing on that body.
This wimpy plane stuff are going to drive me to drink (more). I just built a stick plane using the real light balsa and I'm getting nowhere. Every time I touch anything I break it. All my nice light balsa is almost solid CA glue now. I'm going to leave that soft stuff to the guys that can make love to a butterfly. I'm going back to building my planes out of chicken wire and used toilet paper.
I get so discussed with myself when I can't grab the plane without breaking something. I'm to scared to sand it.

I really admire your persistence in working with balsa, which is really light but perhaps a little too fragile for my fumble fingers. I just received in the mail a Trainer IFO. I haven't done a thing with it yet. But the more I look at the plan and pieces and think about the construction, the concept of building up a more "standard" type of aircraft than the IFO from carbon rod is starting to make more and more sense to me. I really like the idea of wrapping carbon rod joints with kevlar thread, wicking in a little CA and having bulletproof airframes. In trying to look a few years into the future, I could see carbon rods taking over from balsa sticks as the preferred method of construction for those who believe that the only proper place for foam is floating on top of a mug of beer.

kit basher,
Thank you, it's appreciated.

Chuck,
GMREO (giggling my rear end off).
That wing has a chord of 11", the fuse is only 10". I was trying
for low wing loading. So drink is the solution for jittery hands.
I'll have to try it. I know what you mean about breaking things.
If you look at the bottom of the front former you can see a crack
right in the middle. I was holding the sides against the former
while CAing it, a little too much pressure and crack. (cuss words)

Dave,
Since I still have a piece of 1mm CF rod, I may have to add a few
pieces to stiffen the fuse. Now if only the CF was as easy to
cut as balsa, we'd be all set. After this project and the big one,
I'm ready to go back to foam.

DNA, no question that foam is the fastest way to go for building. As far as ease of cutting carbon rod, I think that Gabe at Air Dynamics (NY Blimp) has us covered:

http://airdyn.com/superior/cutter.htm

Great looking structure!

After years of building fibreglass & foam IC models (pylon racers etc.) I built a couple of mylar covered 'living room stick' class indoor f/f (rubber) models. Wood so fine that you had to use tweezers to hold it otherwise it would break, applying tiny dabs of thinned PVA with a cocktail stick, etc. etc.

Maybe 10 years on I still have and fly these models, they astound people at the r/c club.

It's great to learn new skills, I like foamies too and (as per the Avatar) even carbon stick ones

DNA and Dave,
I have not worked with carbon rods, so I don't know, but from reading the description of the NY Blimp tool, it looks like a cheap pair of wire strippers would work good to cut carbon rods. You know the kind that are 2 flat pieces of steel bolted together like scissors with V shaped notches at the cutting end. You can get them at RadioShack for 3 bucks and other places even cheaper. Worth a try.

Jeff

Jeff,

Great suggestion about the wire strippers.
I tried the ones I have and it works super
for cutting 1 and 2mm carbon fiber rods.

thanks

Bill,

Yep, I had to use tweezers for the some of the smaller pieces
where my fingers just wouldn't fit.
Nothing more frustrating than to position a teeny little piece with
your fingers and to get it into just the exact position, only to
find that you had a bit of CA on your finger which attached to
the piece you just installed and pulled it out.