FREE MODEL GLIDER PLAN: QUEEN BEE 8" Tiny glider

This is a conventional pod and boom design with V dihedral. A notable feature is the use of natural carbon fibre for the boom. Natural carbon fibre? Yes, I mean kebab skewers! These can be bought for peanuts (satay sauce?) from a supermarket or online for less than 2 pence each. Search through a pack and you may find a decent number that are straight, stiff and suitable for building with. Any hard outer skin on the cane should be positioned underneath the boom. The wonky ones can be used for, you guessed it, kebabs! Of course, if you cannot find real bamboo, please do feel free to substitute with carbon fibre instead.

For ease of construction, the wing has a straight high point. In the normal HLG manner, after the wing has been shaped, finished and cut, the ends are bevelled and glued into the correct V dihedral setting. A matching V is sanded carefully into the fuselage top - I make a tool for that using a coffee stirrer, balsa and Al-ox paper. Use epoxy for the dihedral joint and wing-fuselage junction. After the wing has set on the fuselage, you can cyano thread to the LE. It may act as a turbulator, but even if not, it protects the LE. I could not detect a change in performance after adding it. That said, if you leave the LE bare with no thread and it receives a bang or dent, then you can sponge it out with a tiny bit of water. It is really up to you.

The QUEEN BEE plan shows the original dayglow yellow and black stripe colour scheme. Finish in the same way as DOGEAR in the previous blogpost.

For some previous notes about flying this model click here. My "still air times" (as described in the DOGEAR blogpost) for QUEEN BEE were in the range ~28-30s.