Yesterday I bought this plane at a swap meet. The man who built it just passed away at the age of 86. His son told me he had been building planes from the age of 15. This glider is a work of art really and I hate to even fly it but the son made me promise I would. It has never been flown. The guy had a Graupner speed 600 mounted but I am swapping that out for a Cyclon outrunner. The wings have a definete concave profile on the bottom and every rib must have been hand shaped. The front part of the fuse looks like it has been carved out of pink foam yet it is very strong and hard feeling. I don't know if it was coated with epoxy or what. Maybe someone is familiar with this technique. The main problem i'm having is i'm not sure what he had in mind to attach the wings. As you can see in the pictures there is a wooden biscuit for lack of a better term that the wings slide over and there is an aluminum insert in this biscuit. I hate to blow holes through the wings but I have no other ideas. Does anyone else have any? Thanks in advance.

I've got no idea but it does look sweet! What's the span on it?

It has an 82" span.

Looks like a tow line freeflight glider enlarged for RC. Probably one of a kind.

That's what I'm leaning towards too Fab. Some custom job. Great workmanship on it from what I can see in the pics.

As to how to mount the wings on it, how tight is that biscut in the wings? If the fit is snug you could most likely get away with running a strip of electrical tape over the areas where they meet the fuselage. If the biscut is a little loose you could build it up with some CA until they're snugged up. If you go to Home Depots' electrical department you can even get yellow tape to match the color.

It is a fairly snug fit. It sounds funny but I never even thought about tape. I'd hate to punch holes in for bolts. This guy had about 5 of his dads planes at the swap meet all scratch built. The detail was amazing. I wish I had the skills and patience to do it.

Actually I find that building really calms me down. It's my therapy! There's something about seeing what starts out as a pile of sticks and sheets leave the shop as a finished plane. You should consider giving building a try. Start with something simple and work your way up from there. A Gentle Lady is an easy kit to build and make a good first build. All you have to do is follow the instructions and be willing to give the glue time to dry. There are several other kits that make good first builds. You don't want to try to tackle something like a major scale build on your first time out of the blocks. you'd just be wasting your time and money.

I'm currently a Windfree kit that I've held onto for almost 25 years. Talk about "old school" building style! Many of the older kits didn't really have very good instructions or details on the plans and relied on the builders experience to fill in the gaps. As I'm making quite a few modifications on the Windfree there's a LOT of gaps on this one.

The modern kits usually have very good instructions with a lot of pictures to help you. Even if the instructions are "clear as mud", you can always ask questions on the forums and find lots of help. The guys on the forums are always willing to help you to get your plane built and in the air.

Jeff