David,

Thanks for the kind words. A couple more pictures and some additional info, and then I'll tell you everything I did wrong with that design.

The first shot shows the gull dihedral which I've always liked. In the second, you can see that both the stabilizer and vertical fin are full flying surfaces with no hinge lines. The flaps are also seen, but the spoilers are hard to see. They are two bays ahead of the flap hinge line in the second quarter of the span. The airplane was covered, with three colors of silk. The deatil photo shows that all the fillets are formed by bulkheads and longerons. It was one royal pain to get the silk to adhere and be wrinkle free on those compound curve, concave fillets.

Now on to all the dumb things I did. There indeed were a lot of pieces of wood. Too many. I built it to withstand winch and bungee launch loads, but I overdid it. It was too heavy. I also didn't provide a long enough nose moment for something with no engine. When I was done adding lead, it was even heavier. Then on the first landing, that slug of lead shot right out the bottom of the fuselage's nose. A sheet wood box to contain it would've helped, but I didn't want to do that because it would spoil the all bulkhead and stringer look. I learned my lesson and moved utility higher up the importance scale. The other sailplane came later, was lighter and structurally sound, and flew really well.

Sorry folks. I know this is a pattern thread, so I'll shut up about sailplanes now.

Ordered wood for the trainer. Targeting first flight for no later than Fourth of July.

Okay, now I'll shut up about trainers!

Regards to all,
Ken