Plan downloaded from JimZ site. Balsa nose cone purchased from BMS. Paint purchased from Hobby Lobby. All other supplies purchased from Hobbytown USA. I'll post another picture later. The glare from the sun on the tail wing makes it look really bad. Note the shortened tips on the tailwing fairings; result of the first flight.
First flight - Brad's place. Winds about 10mph, gusting to 20 mph. Launched with A8-3. Perfect flight and recovery, up until it's final circle for landing when a huge gust of wind caught the tail and slammed it into the hardest piece of ground around. It just sort of blew up. We were all cheering, and then our mouths just gaped open. It was a terrible ending. Brad rescued all the parts. Luckily, the breaks were all clean and I was able to glue everything together again. Had to trim the tailwing fairings a little, but otherwise, she looks the same. Haven't test flown yet. It was one of the prettiest recoveries I have ever seen, up until the end. Brad's favorite. Blake likes it too. My dad was our range master that day. He liked it so much, he wants one too. I'm going to put the parts together with a copy of the plans and give it to him for his birthday.
Second flight - Brad's place. Finally performed test flight, and flew perfectly. Ready to launch. Winds about 5mph, gusting to 10mph. Launched with A8-3. Perfect flight and recovery, up until final circle for landing when it hit a wire on Brad's fence. Broke the tail section off. Another clean break. Elmer's, come on down! Man, such a beautiful flight to end that way. With the first circle it headed into the wind and just hung there. That was beautiful! Then, circled a couple more times and caught a gust of wind and headed up. Woo wee! Final circles brought it down about 50 yards from launch site. If you haven't built one of these, I recommend it highly. Spectacular flights every time. Oh, by the way. I gave Dad the parts to build one. He hasn't completed it yet. I can't wait to see it finished. I'll be sure to post a picture.