The plane has a very low parts count as shown in this photo (above left) of everything but the hardware laid out. Assembly moves quickly when so much is already finished. The kit has the standard Great Planes step-by-step illustrated instruction manual (above right) that illustrates the assembly steps in sequence. It also has a supplemental sheet detailing additional “clean-up” steps such as opening the wing dowel holes in the fuselage a bit to more easily accept the wing
dowels, and grinding off the lip of the fuselage under the wing bolts to permit full movement of the aileron control horns. A short, tapered, hardwood stub spar holds the wing together and sets the dihedral (below left). The stub spar required only a small bit of sanding to fit perfectly in the spar box. The rear of the wing is held in alignment with a small peg. The wheels (below right) are held on and spaced for the wheel pants with small wheel collars using tiny recessed Allen screws.
wheel pants (also painted a matching “Mis- sile Red”); narrow foam wheels to fit inside the pants; and a clear canopy with a match- ing painted edge trim. The canopy, by the way, fits perfectly over a raised canopy rim molded into the top of the fuselage.
Assembling the Cosmic Wind After a check to see that all of the hard-
ware listed in the manual was there, I began what was to be a very rapid assembly process, thanks to the low parts count. As a brief sidebar, I initially couldn’t find the hardware packet containing the multiple pushrods, only to discover they were taped essentially out of sight under a flap in the cardboard divider! The whole assembly process took less
than five hours from the box to a model ready for flight. Stopping to take pictures at each juncture of the assembly process slowed my progress, so actual assembly time for a dedicated modeler could be substan- tially less than that, although allowing time for epoxy and glue to set up and cure over night is never a bad idea. The covering required very little attention to remove what few small wrinkles were
FLYING MODELS
present, and I moved quickly to assembling the two wing panels. The wing is held to- gether by a stubby, tapered hardwood join- er that also automatically sets the dihedral, and a guide pin at the trailing edge for align- ment purposes. As is the case with all assembly proce-
dures, I always do a “dry run” to make sure everything fits together correctly before ap- plying glue or epoxy. In this case, that proved to be fortuitous because the hole for the trailing edge guide pin had not been drilled in the right wing panel. That was quickly corrected and the wing panels were epoxied together with 30-minute epoxy and held in position with “Scotch 3M” blue painter’s tape. If you haven’t tried this tape for modeling purposes, you need to do so. It has great tack, great staying power, and yet removes easily by peeling it back. It is also available at most hardware stores. Since the ailerons are already hinged, all
that was left in assembling the wing were the leading edge locating dowels and the wing bolt plate. Both of these areas do re- quire some added attention, however, since the wing-to-fuselage mounting is crucial to flying success.
Great Planes has provided a supplemen-
tal instruction sheet that addresses how to carefully enlarge the dowel holes in the molded fuselage by manually using a drill bit to ream them out slightly. I found that this was necessary information for my plane, and that the guidelines for trimming away a portion of the wing saddle mount were also useful in order to give the aileron control horns adequate freedom of move- ment. Before leaving the wing, I also slight- ly enlarged the bolt holes in the plywood wing bolt plate to make installing the wing bolts a bit easier. At this point, it was becoming clear that
the fiberglass fuselage was a masterpiece of molding, but that the addition of the gel-coat finish and paint in the manufacturing process had made tolerances very tight. I ei- ther trimmed slightly, or opened up areas where components would be installed, in- cluding the stabilizer slot, and the pre-de- termined holes for the landing gear and the tail wheel bracket. The two-piece landing gear screws to the fuselage using three screws per side. Since it is not a bolted structure, I pre-drilled pi- lot holes down into the molded-in anchoring
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