CrateCruncher, I've built a number of Dirty Birdy kits, although they were the "original" Bridi ones, but many of them were done with fully sheeted wings. As long as you "pick" you sheeting correctly the weight is neglegible (although I always weighed all my sheeting on a gram scale) and that includes .75 glass cloth covering with paint. All the planes were used for event flying and all were very good for their time (although I prefered the later XLT and Tipos, Hippo Tipo and EU-1A).

Alright, I am gettig ready to se tthe incedence of the wing and i am loking for advice before doing this critical step.

The directions in the plans of setting the incidence to 1/32 positive concerns me. The thing that concerns me is that 1/32 is a very small amount whereas the means to measure it is not very accurate. Just the thickness of a pencil line is 1/32 of an inch. So it seems to be very easy to get the measurement wrong.

I have a Robart inceidence meter but it measures in 1/2 degree increments. I did a calcuation of twhat the angle would be and came out to close to .4 degrees. Would it be just as accurate to level the fuselage and ust the robart meter setting the needle just under the 1/2 degree mark.

This is a step I don't want to goof up so any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

I sweated this step too. But I followed the instructions to the letter, tape and pencil marks, set it up on a level floor and make measurements and it came out perfect. I double checked every thing with my Robart incidence meter and it looked good but I think the measuring was more accurate. After covering I used the incidence meter to tweak wing twist.

You're getting close. You'll have a ball with that plane! I burned a half a gallon of fuel in mine this weekend. Today I was practicing knife edge to knife edge snap rolls and inverted stall turns. Sweet!

Dave

I think my problem is I dont have a center line going down the LE so I dont really have anything to measure to. I have the line going down the back side of the LE to align the ribs to but I didnt see where I was supposed to put one one the front side too. Now that I have sanded the LE to the contour of the ribs I don't think it would be accurate to try to put a line on it now.

I am just wondering what kind of flight characteristics the plane would have with the 1/32 incidence compared to like a 0 incidence or 1/16 incidence.

I'd use a center marking gague, like for doing hinging, and just mark the LE as close as you can. Mine came out somewhere between 1/32" and 1/16" but it flies great. Get it as close as you can and trim the rest out in flight. It'll be fine.

Dave

ok. Thanks. I went ahead and did it the best I could. I think as ling as both sides are the same and it is pretty close to 1/32 it will be fine. Heck, I dont even fly well enough to know if it is me flying crooked or the plane most the time. If I cant get it to fly perfect then I can always fill the holes and adjust t later. I am pretty confident it wil be fine though.

It really starting to look like a plane now. Cant wait to get it finished. I should have it completed by the end of the month and it should start warming up soon. Have to resist rushing anything.