View with the nose blocks and nose ring installed and some of the fuselage shaping completed. The lower ¼” balsa part of the back fuselage is just taped on and I’ll glue it on after I work out the push rod routing. The fuselage weight at this point is about 9.5oz. Super light!! I need to resin the engine and fuel tank area for fuel protection so that will add a little weight. It would be pretty neat if this baby came in round 5.5lbs. You can never be too light or too fast!!! The original was pretty fast with the old Veco 61 at 6lbs, imagine 5.5lbs with a hot 61.

The wing is missing the 1 ½ wide aileron stock so it looks a little skinny in the photos. The symmetrical airfoil on the Cold Duck is an 18% - 15% taper. No need to create a lot of drag with a fat airfoil.

The Webra 61 has been temporally installed as a jig to setup the nose ring position. Getting the 1/16 ply wood nose ring positioned correctly was a pain but eventually I got it right on the mark.

I’m not happy with the looks of the Great Planes canopy. It is too short and narrow, so I’m going to investigate the Wing canopy recommended by Paternguy .