I made some progress over the last two weekends, the first significant progress since Christmas.

Finished sheeting the right wing half and fabricated the servo mounts.

I applied about a 3-1/2" wide center 1.5 oz fiberglass ribbon to top and bottom center joint. The plans call for at least a 5" wide sectiion of glass but the instruction say this is not necessary as the plywood dihedral support will handle all the load. Bridi needs to tighten up here instruction sheet. At just two pages it has to be accurate and the fix can't be more then a simple edit in a word processor.

I did not like how this thing fitted up when joining the two halves. Plans call for building the left wing half, including the dihedral support. The right wing spars, ribs, trailing sheeting are built then this partial is added to the dihedral support and the left wing. It is do able, but unweildy.

I do not like mounting my aileron servos as shown on plans. Plans show mounting to rails "flat", where the whole servo protrudes from wing. I like to mount mine on their side to an access plate. Only the servo arm protrudes. I think it looks neater, this is just my preference, plan detail works just fine also.

The access plate and servo mounts are next on schedule.

The spars are just 3/8 square balsa which I felt was light but others thought it OK. However since I'm putting power above recommended I ran 1/4" carbon TOW along top and bottom spars from center leaving last two rib bays unreinforced. First application of this stuff and I am quite surprised how strong and stiff it makes the wing.

The landing gear mounts do not fit as nice as I would have liked. Without alot of trimming they would stick out of the wing form. I spent alot of time cutting and trimming so they would fit under the sheeting.

Crudely took out three circle like lightening holes in each rib. Brass tubes, brad points, forster bits, unibits I have found nothing to cut large circular holes in balsa sheet neatly and easily. Brass tubes dull after just a few holes. Great Planes has done a nice job with a couple tools for builders like their slot machine and dead center hole locater. I may write them with suggestion to invent a decent hole saw for balsa. There is a thing called a tile hole saw with diamond grit for teeth. Too large and expensive but something along that line, I think, would work.

Ribs are not laser cut but sanded to shape. Makes for a nice fit. But also means there are not alignment tabs on ribs similar to what I've seen on Four Star, Hog Bipe and Contenders. One must draw a center line down the each rib them block them so they are parallel. Not hard or inaccurate but just adds some time to build.

The trailing edge is just a peice of rectangular stock. It does not match the airfoil profile and the rib height at attachment width varies the taper of the wing so one has gaps between it and the trailing edge sheeting. I added a thin strip to the stock and sanded to shape of airfoil so no gaps would be present between it and the sheeting.

I wanted to try Robart hinge points so I added some scrap to the interior of trailing edge at the appropriate spots. The plan stock here is thick enough to support CA or pinned hinges but not the Robarts.

Test fit of wing on fuse shows a large step in profile from trailing edge of wing to fuse. Also the chord taper mates to a flat fuse section so there is a large gap. I intend to fill the gap and feather some balsa onto the fuse for a smooth match to the wing. Plan calls for a 1/32 ply plate to cover this but I wanted a slicker appearance. This also lead me to purchase a Robart Incidence Meter. The wing looks like it is parallel to the datum line as shown on plans. However the ill fit leads makes me question the incidence and this is a good excuse to purchase another tool. Hope the LHS has one.

This is my first tapered wing and being this is a more advanced construction I had expected a more difficult build then previous experience. However I give the wing engineering a "D+". The landing gear mounts could have been closer to final shape, 1 point off. The wing trailing edge/sheeting/rib joint cannot be sanded to shape without adding addtional material, .5 point off. The poor fit at the fuse/ wing trailing edge shows poor engineering also, 1 point off. The manual gets another 1/2 point deduction. Given what one can do today with a word processor, digital camera and a cheap printer some effort needs to be given. Oh almost forgot, Bluejay charged me $5 for a replacement manual. A little cheap when I would think could be emailed to me.

Still have to fabricate the stabilzers, elevators and rudder. Here are some pictures.