Gil,

Flew it yesterday. I need to find a way to get decals to stay stuck to heat shrink covering.   

Flies pretty good. Even Pete Peterson thinks it's cool.

Pat Johnston has the plans. He sent me a set and they look OK. Not quite what I built, but pretty close. You can request them from him. You can also get a laser cut short kit if that's of interest.

Yea, too bad I skimped on the bellcrank. Man, that thing exploded on impact. Not pretty.

Sigh...

Doc,

It broke at the pivot. Don't take anything from this. It was just me using a substandard component in my haste to finish the plane. My own fault and it will not be repeated.

Yea, I planning on building another. I will make a couple of minor changes in the design. If I decide to use the 40VF again, I'll shorten the nose an inch or so. And I will change the fuse structure aft of the CG to beef it up a bit since tail heaviness isn't an issue. At all. I'll probably use a ribbed and sheeted stab this time rather than the sheet stab with ribs cut in. I suspect it will be stiffer and it could use that.

James,

Well, there won't be an article from me. Dee Rice said something about an article in Control Line World, but I haven't heard anything else. Pat Johnston had drawn some plans and is doing a short kit on request. I know of at least one in the works, but my next one will have to wait for me to build a new PA plane first. I will probably get to it over the winter.

Bill,

It's completely different. This plane was designed from the ground up for a .40 tuned pipe. The wing is my own design and is about 615 square inches with full span flaps.. The original planed weighted about 49 oz and flew better than my PA plane (which is why my new PA plane is using largely the same numbers). Very cool layout. It only looks like a Ringmaster. Sort of.