Got a few more hours of work on the Senior! Got one side of the fuse put together and planning on doing the other side tomorrow. Everything went pretty well, except for one thing. Who was the rocket scientist that figured they would split the fuse on the plans and then put the front and rear of the fuse on the same sheet! You CAN'T put it together unless you cut the plans!!!! That's like saying, "you can get out of your car but you've got to cut the door off!"
Didn't see that one coming..

Anyways, put the fuse together tonight. Dad and I sorted out the stix needed to do it. He had to go so I continued on. Everything went pretty well. Basically, once you figure out where the spruce should go and where the balsa should be, it goes pretty quick. I decided that rather than cutting EVERYTHING and trying to keep them all in place, I went ahead and glued the bottom combination of spuce and balsa before forming it and pinning it. Here's the first side with just a few mods to the rear section. I made it flat instead of angled to clear the modified tail.

First shot is of the plans. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. If the tail section was printed on the second sheet, it would be simple to overlap the plans and viola! no cutting necesary. Oddly enough, the top view is also separated the same way ON THE OTHER SHEET!!!!!! Just swap the tail sections on the plans and no more cutting.

The second one is of the FN section on the nose. Instead of trying to get the 1/4-inch peices to bend and stay put, I tacked it on to the bottom front of FN and then bent it around and finished gluing it in place. Worked great and kept it in contact with both peices. Then I pinned it down.

The last shot is of the tail section sitting with the side of the fuse. It kind of gives the idea of what it will look like. I think I'll like it. I've already tried to think of a covering scheme for it.

Dad and I were looking at the plans and it shows a LOT of down thrust for the engine. The senior that I currently fly doesn't have nearly as much down thrust. I'm just wondering if I should consider putting that much down thrust in the plane. I don't have a problem with the my other plane climbing, even with the 91 on it. I'm open for suggestions on that one.