I like to make my own "kit" of parts before starting the assembly. On this model you must make two fuselage sides and all of the tail pieces from ³/₃₂ balsa. You also have to cut out four fuselage formers from ¹/₁₆ plywood and a fifth former from ³/₃₂ balsa. The last items are two ¹/₁₆ plywood wing-panel joiners—one for each tip panel.

To cut out these parts I take the plans to a copying store, such as Kinko's, and have photocopies made of the parts to be cut out. I paste these copies to manila-folder stock (file folders opened up) using rubber cement and 3M Magic Tape.

After the cement dries I cut out the pieces, which make handy templates. Then it is just a matter of transcribing the outline of the parts onto the balsa and plywood sheet material with a ballpoint pen. Since you made copies of the full-size plans, the parts you cut out should fit perfectly.

You will be using the same cements that you used to assemble the Pogo. I purchase all of mine from Balsa Products Inc. in Iselin, New Jersey, but there are many supply sources. You will need thin and thick cyanoacrylate glue (CyA) with an accelerator (in a spray bottle) and five-minute epoxy cement for the high-stress areas such as the firewall, wing-panel joints, and stabilizer/vertical fin attachment to the fuselage.

Because the wing requires no ribs, all you need is a bunch of balsa sticks. The bottom of the airfoil is made from ¹/₈ balsa sticks. Add the three spars, and the last step is to bend ¹/₁₆-inch-thick strips over the spars, forming the airfoil shape of the wing. You may find that briefly soaking these strips in water will make them bend easier.

When assembling the wing, take note that the middle spar in the center panel is ¹/₈ x ³/₈ spruce (a hardwood); that is for extra strength. On the tip panels, to maintain a gradually thinning airfoil shape it is necessary to taper the spars from the panel joint out to the tip. For that reason all of the tip-panel spars are made from balsa so that they can be easily tapered (cut). Each wingtip is simply capped off with ³/₃₂ balsa and sanded to blend in.

Fuselage: Trial-mount your Speed 400 motor to the plywood firewall F1. You will need to drill a clearance hole in the center along with two screw holes. The screws are 2.6 millimeter, which you can obtain from Kirk Massey at New Creations R/C. Leave the motor off until after F1 is cemented to the fuselage sides.

Add ¹/₁₆ x ¹/₄ spruce stiffeners to the wing-mount and battery-compartment areas. This provides extra strength and should not be omitted. When you cement the stiffeners in place, remember that you are making one left fuselage side and one right side.

Now you can cement the formers in place, first to one side using a square or triangle to make sure that they are aligned properly. You can use thin CyA to spot the formers in place, then follow up with thick CyA, which adds more strength.

Attach the firewall (F1) with five-minute epoxy cement. Once formers F1 through F4 are in place, add the other fuselage side. Try to eyeball-align the two sides. The last thing you do is join the two fuselage sides at the rear. Hold them temporarily with a clothespin and cement them in place (with thick CyA).

Add the two ¹/₈ x ¹/₄ spruce servo-mounting rails which are located on top of the fuselage, just aft of the wing trailing edge. The Hitec HS-81 servos are mounted to these rails using the supplied wood screws (two for each servo). Run the cables coming from these servos through the hole in former F4 and into the receiver compartment, just below the wing.

Mount the Speed 400 motor in place with the two screws, and install the Jeti JES 110 Electronic Speed Control (ESC). The motor cables run through the hole in former F2. Then the ESC servo cable passes through the hole in former F3. I used double-stick tape to hold the ESC to the fuselage side. Install the ESC switch on the left side of the fuselage. Before adding the sheeting, install the battery-compartment floor, which is made from ³/₃₂ balsa.

With this done, you can apply the ¹/₁₆ sheet top and bottom to most of the model. For example, do the fuselage top from the servos to the leading edge of the stabilizer, then sheet the entire bottom of the fuselage. With all of this sheeting, the grain runs across or at right angles to the fuselage sides. The only sheeting you leave open at this point is the top from the firewall to the wing leading edge.