The "Tiny Egg"

Here is a chance for you to try your hand at a really inexpensive and quite simple Catapult Launched Glider	 (CLG). We have been flying this little glider for some time now and have been able to get flights of over 60 seconds. In fact on a nice, warm summer day with some thermal activity you have a good chance of having one go OOS.

We used 3/32 inch square stock for the fuselage, spruce or basswood will work. It is recommended that the modified version of the fuselage be used. On our prototype we were able to break the fuselage at the point where we inserted the wire catapult hook and this resulted in the modification. Note that we have wrapped and glued thread around the fuselage and the wodd catapult hook to give added strength.

The wing is made from 3/32 inch balsa and here don't be afraid to use some nice, light balsa sheet. To get the 14 degree dihedral for each wing panel there is a 28 degree wedge pattern included. We put one wing panel flat on the building board and then used the 28 degree wedge to lift the other wing panel for the proper dihedral.

The tail surfaces are made from 1/32 inch balsa stock and once again don't be afraid to use nice, light balsa. For the horizontal tail there is a pattern for a 16 degree wedge and it is to be used in the same manner as the one used for the wing. When assembling the glider parts make sure that the wing and horizontal tail are set at 0/0 degrees of incidence. I leave the method of finish up to the builder, just don't get carried away and really weight the little glider down.

For flying we use a  6 inch dowel for the catapult handle and a 9 inch loop of 1/4 inch Tan II rubber. Even when built very light this is one tough tiny egg. Your "Tiny Egg" will weigh in somewhere near 6.5 grams including the ballast for balance. The first test glide should be nothing more than a gentle chuck toward a point on the ground about 50 feet away. If things are close to correct the glide should be very flat and smooth.

For the first catapult launch use about 50 percent of the rubber stretch and try for a near vertical launch. If the first launch goes well then proceed with a maximum stretch of the rubber and once again launch vertically. This time you just might have to do a bit of walking to retrieve the "tiny one".

For those more advance in glider flying you might try just a wee bit of horizontal tail tilt to get the glide to circle in the direction you want. We fly with a glide circle to the left.

Hope to hear from a lot of folks getting 60 second flights out of this little machine.
Dave Thompson Longview, TX ltcdtret@swbell.net