Well it is building season and I only have 4 other projects going on and 3 of them are in the finishing stages so I thought I'd start another. I bought this kit from Bill Sawyer about 2 1/2 yrs ago and figured it had seasoned long enough. This is my first I beam but reading lots of articles etc. it seems pretty straight forward. The I beam is assembled except for the bottom cap which goes on after the spar is in the fusalage. Blocks are tacked and shaped except for the cowl nose. Next is to hollow the blocks and then start the wing alignment proceedures. Should be fun. I plan on a Fox 35 and a 3 1/2" Tom Morris B/C with arrowshafts, the arrowshafts all other hardware and leather fillets were included in the kit.

Lee,
The Ballerina III that Charles Lickliter had at the '61 Nats, is still one of the most beautiful airplanes that I have ever seen. It would win Concours today.

I have the plans that were sent to me by Charlie about 15 years ago. And also some recent plans. It thankfully, was published in Flying models a few ago, and the article has a close uo of the incredible cockpit.

While the plans show a small view of the "Bird Cage" type canopy, only the  "Ballerina I" actually had that along with cheeks. The same "Ballerina III" drawing side view shows the bubble canopy.

The Ballerina III that Charlie flew at the '61 Nats and another that he had with him, had the bubble. I have never seen a Ballerina III with the "Bird Cage"

I highly recommend getting the I-Beam building video that Bill Werwage and Bob Hunt made.

The video  shows the bellcrank mount just aft of the spar, instead of through the spar as in many of the old I-beam drawing showed, and spar tripplers where the bellcrank slot is in the spar. This prevents the I-beam failures that we saw in the early days. I-beamers were very secretive in those years, and many details were left out of the published drawings.

Here is a slide that I took of Charlie at the '61 Nats

There was a Ballerina thread in the Classic section, some time last year, that has more pictures.

Bill:

  Yes the wing tip rib plates are included. As far as the bottm spar cap, I have the plans that came with the kit and the ones from FM and they both say not to put on until installed in fusalage. Don't know why but I will follow the instructions.

Lee,
The Ballerina III that Charles Lickliter had at the '61 Nats, is still one of the most beautiful airplanes that I have ever seen. It would win Concours today.

Sorry to jump in on this thread so late, but I hadn't seen it until a friend of mine told me about it.

I agree the Ballerina is one of the most beautiful planes ever designed. When it came out many years ago I didn't think I had the skills to build one, but I kept the magazine and thought maybe some day.  Well if it is ever going to happen the someday better be soon. I started a thread about it sometime ago and a very kind gentlemen gave me a set of plans (You know who you are) and it was much appreciated. I plan to get started on one soon, after I get a few other projects done. Please hold your fire, but I really doubt I will ever fly it. I just want one to look at. Me flying that would be like using a Ferrari to herd cattle. I intend to build version one. I will use a solid canopy and simulate the "balsa bird cage". I will use the original cheek cowls. It is a classic in the best sense of the word.

You are correct sir!  You can always move the firewall back to the LE of the wing (or even beyond!).  And, if you add a 1/16th ply floor to the tank area, you can do away with the full depth F-1 and have a slide in tank, making tank installation and cowls much easier!

Can't believe it's been 2 years since I set this aside.I screwed up the alignment of the spar when I made it and got fed up. Now 2 years later I bought a new piece of 1/4" glass for the table and carefully made a new spar and started the mounting holes for the landing gear. Making the hinges will be a challenge but I'm game. I picked up 3 packs of 1/16" brass tube some 1/16" sq balsa and now to cut some 1/4" strips of 1/16" balsa and see how it goes. I've got a Tom Morris 3 1/2" Bell Crank so as soon as I get the holes drilled and the bottom spar cap on I'm ready for the wing. Think I'll watch my I Beam Videos (Robins View) again as a refresher.

The alignment is going better than last time. I've got everything within 1/32" so not much tweeking left before I get putting ribs in. Looks like I will need to get the flap horn in soon also.

I would like to add a little information about the Ballerina III and some personal updates.

Several years before the published article of the Ballerina III, I purchased one of a very few hand cut kits that were done by Charles Lickliter sometime in the 60's. I also ordered the plans as published by Flying Models and have compared the two side by side. It is quite obvious that there were two distinctly different Ballerina III's.

The kit that I bought contained plans to build a plane with a wing span of 50 inches. The published plans show a wing span of 52 1/2 inches. The kit I bought contained a Ringmaster Sportster canopy and the plans showed that canopy in use. The Ringmaster Sportster canopy was also shown on the label on the box. The Ballerina III that was flown by Charles in the NATS had a bubble canopy and was shown in the magazine articles. The fairly recent article about the Ballerina III also shows a bubble canopy. There are other minor differences in the planes as well. I have never been able to get the information as to the actual span of the Ballerina III that was flown in the NATS but it can be assumed that it was the same as the plane published recently because it does look the same.

To complicate the matter there was a Ballerina with a 56 inch wing span that had the carved canopy with inserts for the windows. This plane also had a wheel pant for the tail wheel. I have the plans for this Ballerina also and it has differences.

In all of the old plans - both the kit plans and the published plans there is a drafting error in the plans. The leading edge, the trailing edge and the spar are incorrectly aligned vertically. If built as drawn the result would be two errors. At the fuselage, the top airfoil would be different from the lower airfoil. Also the wing would not fit in alignment with the airflow over the fuselage. With the plane flying level the nose would be trying to fly downward slightly. I produced and sold 37 reproductions of the kit I haveand the Sportster canopy was included. In all of these kits the error has been corrected.

Recently I had the plans done in Autocad for cutting an improved kit. The wood has been sent to the cutter but it will be some time before I can complete the kits.

Now for some personal information. I do have some medical issues. I have not shut down my shop but I did stop kit production for an extended period of time. I am now back to working on producing the Tucker 4 kits. I am also trying to restock my kits as I have sold out of everything except the Tom Warden Continental.

Today I received a second shipment of parts for another kit. It is a laser cut full fuselage stunter that I plan to sell for $85.00 plus shipping. An announcement will be on the boards when the kits are ready to ship. Sorry but due to circumstances I am unable to give out any more information.

Recently I have been completing a plane of my own design. Using elements from other planes that I liked, I produced a 54 inch spam I-beam stunter with 542 square inches. I have all the color and trim on and without engine the weight is 32.8 ounces. I will be posting pictures soon.

I still produce the canopies as listed in vendor's corner. Due to space I do not make them ahead but use the weekends to fill orders. Leather fillets are still available also.

Bill Sawyer
Windancer Models



 

Lee,
  Unless something happens the kits should be ready to ship by this weekend. I have to cut motor mounts and some other parts. One full day in the shop would complete the parts but a full day is hard to get.


Bill

One side finished enough to turn and do the other. I even remembered to leave some ribs out to mount the landing gear. I also took Billy's advice and the big ribs against the fuse are not glued in yet.

It's all ready to break loose and install the landing gear and the rest of the ribs. Randy, I tried to leave some balsa dust etc. and make it not look so clean. I do have a reputation to uphold.    The top block is just taped on to see what it'll look like.

I went with carved wing tips, the outboard is finished. No wing tip weight was mentioned so I built a tip box " ala Windy ". Now for the inboard and I will put a line slider in that.