Last spring I bought a set of ribs and plan for a Chris Foss Phase 5 from Nick and when I had finished the Flamingo I started it. Talk about chalk and cheese, building the Flamingo and Phase 5 could not be more different but still interesting.
I looked at the previous Phase 5 build log and noted the areas to be wary of and off I went. I’m not intending to do a re-run of the build as Paul more than adequately covered that, I just want to highlight a couple of differences between his model and mine and to answer one question that Paul had about the tail plane - each side is made from two pieces of balsa cut at different angles to the grain to add strength.
I’ve hinged the inner ailerons at the bottom rather than the top and shaped the upper LE so they can still operate as ailerons but still allow me to get 80+ degrees of flap.
Finishing has been done the traditional way in nylon for the wings, fuselage and fin and all flying surfaces are covered in tissue paper as per Chris’ original ‘70’s design. The wing was covered in two pieces of nylon the fuselage in a single piece. Ah! the smell of dope takes me back a decade or two or perhaps five. The model is going to remain in its natural state as I like wood, so here it is.
