Mike,

thanks for your interest in the little Deception build.

To answer your first question, I won't say no, I'll say not yet! I basically lost momentum after leaving the stab to cure while picking up my kid at school, came back, and realized it had canted to the side... I was ticked off to say the least. Anyhow, I need some forstner bits to fix the situation. When I get them, I'll probably just go right through and finish things up.

The model was my first attempt at building a reduced scale classic pattern plane and I overbuilt it. Basically, the fuse sides which are 1/8" should have been 3/32" and the core sheeting was 1/16" where it should have been 1/32" for a model of this size. Still, these are the equivalent weights that would have been used back when the Deception was first designed and built and I expect the model to come in at 40 oz AUW. Because I feel this is a little on the heavy side, I'd like to shed some 4 oz so before covering, the airframe will go on a diet to shed those ounces.

If you are interested in building a little Deception with tall the bells and whistles (7 servos in this model), I'd recommend a slightly larger model. In fact, after having built two 40" classics (the Deception and a Tiporare), I've reached the conclusion that unless you build them very simply perhaps with electric power, you're better off building a larger version. At a minimum of 48" span, things become considerably easier. Basically a .25 to .32 size airframe and up is a good size. A Deception 30 can easily be built with a 32-35 size power plant and if you want to include retracts (no Deception should be without), there is a simple and nice option in the 4 lb electric retracts available today.

I scaled the plans to various sizes including 15, 30, 45 and 60. Of course, it's a simple matter to produce a Super Deception for a 90 or 120 size engine if desired. 6' is an ideal target span for a 90-120 version.

Let me know what plans you are interested in and I'll direct you to them.

David.