I agree with some of the scaled plans comments, but not all of them.. I disagree with changing the airfoil when scaling. The idea of scaling is to maintain the flying properties of the plane, just a different size. Builders want it to fly like the original, if they want it to fly differently, why pick THAT plane to scale. Pick one that flies the way you want it to.

The fuse side thickness is another issue. Due to the mandatory 'tipo tuck' that has to be sanded in, 3/16 will not be thick enough. The tuck, acording the the designer, does affect the flying characteristics. The .60 size has 1/4" sides, not 3/16" for that reason. I tried 3/16 on a batch of kits, and builders had issues getting the tuck cut in properly, builders said to go back to the 1/4" sides. There is very little weight difference between them anyway.

I considered doing the sheeted turtle deck, but once all the wood is sanded away, the result is not that much different either way, there isn't much wood left. Built 60 size prototypes both ways... There are plenty of ways to lighten the tipo if you desire, such as carving out the canopy area, which most guys don't do, and being sure to carve the the turtle deck all the way, a lot of builders don't sand planes all the way to the proper shape. Lightening holes can be put in the fuse sides, but the tuck makes placement a little tricky, and unless you need to put them in for balance purposes, they may be a negative....

Going by quantities sold of the kits that I offer turtle deck both ways, the pretty close to 50-50 split tells me a lot of builders still like the old simple stick the top on and carve method. I think most of it depends on when the builders did their building.

Remember, the Tipo was designed as a simple quick to build replacement for the complicated Curare, hence the name, and it lives up to this well.

Just my opinions to add to the others.

Don @ Eureka Aircraft