I may have set a record for the shortest flight test program: two flights and off with the wing. This is Randy Randolph's DIME from the October, 1991 issue of Model Aviation. It is a 3-channel design and I have a .15 engine in it. I was looking for a relaxing flyer, and this is certainly slow enough, but the rudder turns are not smooth. So after two flights I decided to add ailerons.

What agony- pulling off a good covering job and getting out the saw to break apart the wing panels- Aaargh! But it all went quickly. With ailerons I no longer needed the upswept tips of the stock design so the tips were reset at right angles to the end ribs. The rib ends were cut off and a sub trailing edge added. The ailerons are built up of sheet balsa. The wing was re-joined with 1 degree of dihedral for each side. The modifications added about 4 ounces weight. Hinges on all control surfaces are made from Ultracote. Wingspan is 50" and total weight is 41 ounces.

Now I had smoother turns and nice slow fly-bys - perfect for a senior citizen like me. Adding some aileron differential eliminated the need to coordinate rudder in turning. Loops are nice and the rolls are v-e-r-y slow.

Nicely done conversion.

I have just discovered that LazerWorks sells a parts package for the DIME: http://lazer-works.com/index.html