Last night after a good dose of sanding Rebel was removed from the shadows. 2.5mm balsa, 1 wetted out layer 80g/m2 F/G and 2 subsequent coats of west resin. Present weight 84g or just under 3oz. I think I'm in the right field!

Added extra balsa to the wing leading edges to improve the profile which might have been a bit blunt. Also made a ply plate to help reinforce the area around the wing locating dowel which will be fitted at a later date.
Cut and fixed the upper deck longerons so now this model has really starting to take the form of a Hurricane.
The view of the tradesman's entrance shows the plastic tube which passes through the firewall and is fixed to the front of the GRP cowl. The tube will be loaded with balancing lead and the battery pack. The RX will be fitted to the ply plate on the left and the apertures for the servo's and switch have also been formed.
Work is still ongoing at the tail and a fair amount of fettling will be required to make this area more life like. At present and following the plan there's not a lot of scale detail with regards to fairing in this area.

Gosh! How does a forecast of a NW12-16mph wind just the day before be so wrong! At the lake it was more like Southerly 1-2mph with an occasional NW shift. Still we had 12 close races between a MX14, Goth EVO and Harry's BOR.
It was also the maiden of my first effort into IOM sailmaking. The conditions weren't exactly ideal but the shape appeared to be OK and once I got my head into gear and a couple of small tweaks later I managed to win a couple of races. However, I'm not going to read too much into todays results as the conditions were a little fluky. Lets hope for a little more wind in two weeks time what ever the weather man says.

Graham Bantock's, Brad Gibson's and MK's IOM sails. When making my next suit (which could be sooner than I thought) I think I will be adding to the luff and flattening the main. I'm pretty happy with the shape of the jib.
When I finally make a sail which I'm happy with I might purchase some double matt film!

Harry's IOM sails are now rigged and they aren't too bad. There is definitely room for some refinements to improve their shape but I'll play around for a little while before jumping into the next suit. I should also make sure that the next sails are legal and the sail numbers are correctly positioned. I was so keen to use my home made stencil I put the first number in the wrong location. I noticed my error almost at once but it was to late the pen had streaked it's black inky mark on the film so there was nothing I could do but complete the task somewhat gutted.
Still looking on the bright side the Hurricane is coming along nicely

I have finished making my first suits of sails both for Rebel a RG 65 and also a suit for Harry's IOM, Bor. Now we just have to wait till Sunday to see how Harry's new sails perform. Between now and then I just have to stencil in the sail numbers and fit them to the spars.
At the same time I have also been doing a bit to the Hurricane fuse including the upper decking, cockpit, cowl and wing tips.

Rebel's balsa core hull has been laminated with 1 layer of 80g/m2 fibre glass. I'm hoping this will be adequate and offer enough impact resistance. The internal surface of the hull will also be laminated around the high load areas of the fin box and mast.
I have also made my first suit of sails which in the whole was an enjoyable job. However, the mylar film sets in a better shape on one tack better than the other so perhaps I'll be making another suit pretty soon. This evening I've drawn out a new IOM main for my sons yacht and will turn the film over on each alternate panel to try and stabilise the shape. I can't be too fussy as I bought over 20m of 50 micron film for just over £8.00 inc p&p on eBay on Christmas Day! Unfortunately, it's not double matt sided so one side has a very glossy finish but I doubt this will have a major effect on actual performance.

Yep, here we have two poseurs showing off their 3D gliders. A brightly coloured Vagabond and a slightly more subtle (plain Jane) Traceur. Due to the pretty windy conditions and a couple of test crashes they were grounded during this slope session.