Gambler Slope Soaring (3 min 0 sec)

This s me slope soaring my gambler DLG at West of Panama City Beach Fl this past summer from the beach below. Dunes were approx 50-60 feet with small condos on top.. pletny of lift. My daughter 12, did a pretty good job of capturing it... Gentle breezes.. dunes.. sun and warm weather!!

Mike

I recently purchased a CraftAir Firebird kit form my LHS. Having gotten into the sport in the late 70's I have a fondness for these older style planes. Here I have the fuselage coming along as well as the tail group and wing. cutouts in the ribs are for landing gear blocks.

I was building a proctor nieuport 17 but it's a complicated build and needed to take a break and work on something that went together much quicker. I will be back on the nieuport when the firebird is completed.

Here is the wing as it stands now, I'm hoping to do some leading edge sheeting tonight. I noticed one of the ailerons is very hard balsa and quite a bit heavier than the other so I'm going to replace it so I don't end up with a heavy side. Also is a pic of the Ad from RCM mag long ago.

Another pic of the wing with bottom sheeting and top and bottom capstrips in place. Gear needs to be installed permanently. Inboard two ribs are missing caps top and bottom due to center sheeting.

Tuesday 2/17:
Got back from vacation and did some more work on the wings.. sheeting, and tips blocks intalled and rough shaped. Landing gear block on one side in but I broke the wire gear for the other so will need to recreate one. It's not called for in the planss but I'm adding a ply joiner between the wings at the spars along with the center section fiberglass per plan. No pre shaped wood in these older kits.. lots of cutting shaping and sanding.

3/5
Began joining the wings and sheeting. Need to...Continue Reading