by Chris Kiekens

This is the crate... pretty exciting really. It sat in the fridge long enough (about 10 minutes after I realized that it was very thin plywood). I have been playing with boosted gliders lately, but balsa gliders don't seem to do well with a D engine attached...
I thought the wood may be a little heavy... but hey, the price was right!

The wings are pretty basic... rounded top and bottom, upper wing slightly forward... It is way faster with the upper wing forward! A speaker must be used to clamp the wings while the glue dries... this is essential to making it loud!

The tail section is basic too... I had concerns about the thrust of a D engine tearing off the stabilizers. And visions of it crashing through my car's windshield...

I cheated some for the fuselage and used a piece of aircraft plywood, and a 1/4"X1/4" piece of balsa. I had concerns about using the short pieces of the box, glued together, so shoot me, I cheated a little...

Same parts... I had another picture, you can rent this space for advertising if you like... Cheap, really, really cheap!

A view from the front, with the motor tube installed... I used a 1/4" launch lug because it is what was laying on my desk...

A shot from the side... Notice how far back the motor tube is to compensate for the weight distribution... Also notice that the nose sticks out further than the motor... Typically, it seems, the motor tube hangs off the end of the glider, but i found with the heavy wing assembly it needed to be move back somewhat.

Just another filler shot...

Consider this a scale shot..see my hand...

First Flight:
It was slightly windy (10MPH); my choices for the maiden flight were a D12, or an E9. I chose a D12, because I wasn't sure what the flight would bring, and the Estes E motor burns for quite some time. I also figured that if it could take the thrust of a D12, then it would definately be good to go on an E9. The OCOD leap off the pad in a screaming fiery fury! At around 100 feet, it's flight course went goofy. Yes, that is the technical term, goofy. The three people in attendance shifted noticably, as 100 feet isn't a great deal of space between a flying orange crate, and your head... The flight seemed to stabilize, and the motor kicked out the bulkhead... Being slightly more nose-heavy than intended caused it to come in faster than the design called for, and minor damage ensued. It will be easily repaired, and checked out on an E...

Second Flight:
The second flight was on an E9-6, with a new bulkhead installed. I used a 6 foot 1/4" rod to launch from this time, in an attempt to cause it to fly straighter... I have no idea what the acheived altitude was..but it was a cool flight!