This is my first kit in 30-years. I am starting a Bridi Big Bee kit. Everything looks great, it is clut cleanly and fits nice. They have an excellent reputation, I feel sheepish to question them with my meager skill level. That said , the balsa provided for the main spars seems soft. Three of four spar stringers are softer than the fourth. It is nice stiff hard balsa by comparison. Would it be a goodidea torip down some clear spruce and subsititue it for the balsa?

They claim it will finish up at 12#. I am planning on putting a 41cc Zenoah on it. That will give a power to weight ratio of 2:1. I would be sickened to fold up the wings. I lost my scratch build 1/4 scaleEindecker to a structural failure a couple of weeks ago. I don't want a repeat performance. </p>

I would replace with spruce, basswood or some other hard wood. I would never use soft wood as a spar.
P.S: at theleast replacewith some nice hard balsa.

I'd also recommend using Spruce (or even clear close grained pine) for the spars.  Be sure to put webbing between the upper and lower spars.

Replace the balsa with hard balsa sticks if you like. As you stated "they have an excellent reputation" why would believe you need spruce? I don't know anything about the plane but would tend to believe it's much stronger than it needs to be.</p>

Occasionally a kit will include a balsa stick thats too soft for a spar or badly warped.  Just take the good spars with you to the hobby shop and select a balsa replacement that has similar density to the ones in the kit you intend to use.  I agree with others, spruce is overkill for this size plane unles the airfoil is razor thin.</p>

I'm in agreement with the above.

Charles

Charles</p>

You have quite a bit of work going on.  What keeps you from covering these nice builds?</p>

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