Many stunters are built using free flight techniques,Look at the work Tom Morris has utilized in his kits .
they are essentially 742 ,000 pieces of 1/16 sheet and they live very well without weighing much at all.

A very good friend has stated to me several times ,You can build a plane with one tube of glue or you can build it with two or three tubes.
I have found that after obtaining the correct weight of balsa that the adhesive is the biggest weight culprit.

BTW four lb wood is not the correct wood in all cases.
I often use 6/7 lb wood for the LE sand TE sheeting.

I'm also a Freeflight'er. I'd have to say I didn't become competitive till I got a electronic gram scale for up to 200 grams. Now I weight every piece of balsa before using. I have a color code I mark each piece with to keep it all strait.


P.S. Competitive in freeflight not CL Stunt. I have along wy to go there. I'm still having problems coming home with whole airplanes.

With my freeflight knowledge I'll try to clear this up. Silk is a cloth made up of threads made by a worm woven into a cloth. Not all silk is suitable for our needs thought. Only the fine and light stuff without sizing will do. When I build my clown I'm going to use a skirt my wife gave me. As for silkspan its made up of cotton fibers and was first made I think for tea bags. It comes in different weights. Its the material that is in most CL kits. As for tissue that comes in many differant weights and is a paper product. As for Jap tissue it is the lightest and strongest for its weight. Great for small free flight but not really strong enough for our purposes unless you put on 2 layers. But I have a hard time covering once. IMHO Colored silk with clear is the prettiest with Jap tissue a close second. Some craftman can make silkspan look fantastic also. Some B & A freeflight models have been covered with ripstop nylon with great success.

There was a civil engineer in town named Bolton him and his sons flew CL speed and other things back in the 50'S. I meet one of the sons years ago and he showed me pictures of their planes and many where covered with silk scarves and skirts, It was really neat seeing a paisley plane. But most had flowers on them. So when I think of a vintage plane I think they should have flowered silk. So I'm doing my clown in an old skirt of my wifes.

With my freeflight knowledge I'll try to clear this up. Silk is a cloth made up of threads made by a worm woven into a cloth. Not all silk is suitable for our needs thought. Only the fine and light stuff without sizing will do. When I build my clown I'm going to use a skirt my wife gave me. As for silkspan its made up of cotton fibers and was first made I think for tea bags. It comes in different weights. Its the material that is in most CL kits. As for tissue that comes in many differant weights and is a paper product. As for Jap tissue it is the lightest and strongest for its weight. Great for small free flight but not really strong enough for our purposes unless you put on 2 layers. But I have a hard time covering once. IMHO Colored silk with clear is the prettiest with Jap tissue a close second. Some craftman can make silkspan look fantastic also. Some B & A freeflight models have been covered with ripstop nylon with great success.

HI Mike,

Do you put on your clear dope filler over the silk holding it upside down (doping on the bottom and not the top). ?  I hold it up so that I am applying dope that wants to drip off the silk.

I have done that whenever I use silk, and it saves the amount of dope it takes to cover!

Bill <><