The power of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special efforts, but by his ordinary doing. --Blaise Pascal

The power of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special efforts, but by his ordinary doing.
--Blaise Pascal

 So, I decided the next best thing would be to make one myself.

I picked a simple, learn-to-build kit from Guillow’s. The Fly Boy model. I made it a personal challenge to build it in the span of the three-day, two-night long weekend.

Building the frame was probably the most satisfying part. Out of necessity, some of it has to be done in stages, but because you use either white glue or wood glue, the drying process is only a couple hours long, so several major steps can be accomplished in a single day. It becomes a very enjoyable day when you can say “I took some wood and turned it into something that looks like and airplane”. In reality, it was about 6 hours of effort to get the frame complete. For the wing, you take the ribs (the aerodynamically-shaped pieces that give the wing its lift), pin them on the plans vertically, then glue the spars onto them to hold everything in place, pinning them down as well to hold them tight. When dry, sand, and combine. The wing was made of 3 major sections, all of which could be built at the same time, and then later assembled when dry.

Skinning the airplane is definitely a far more finicky and slow process. This model required tissue paper and diluted white glue to skin it, painted once on the frame, then again to the surface of the tissue paper that was touching the frame to ensure the glue penetrated all the way through the tissue paper and into the balsa wood frame. Again, this was a very stepwise process, but due to the diluted nature of the glue, it took a long time for the tissue paper to dry. The really neat part was that once you were done skinning, and the tissue was dry, if there were any wrinkles left in the tissue, lightly misting them with water would remove them when the water dried up. It basically tightened and stretched the imperfections out of the tissue paper.

The wing was held in place by elastics and a dowel so you could move it forward and back to balance the airplane without having to commit to gluing it in place permanently. It also makes it easier to transport the airplane when you can take the big wing off.

Threading the elastic through was definitely a test of patience. I ended up using a stretched-out coat hanger to help.

For the first flight the instructions recommended  only 25 turns of the elastic for wind up.

Here’s the pitch! I think this was the exact point I realized that if it doesn’t work I may be left with a twisted pile of balsa wood, tissue, and a spinning propeller. And a weekend’s worth of wasted effort.

Didn’t go far the first time, but it did survive the decent to the ground. I was amazed at how hard it hit and yet survived, unscathed.

Later that day, when flying the airplane again, I lost count of the number of turns I had put into the propeller winding it up, and the elastic snapped. When it snapped, the elastic recoiled and spun around manically, tearing through the tissue paper. All of which was quickly and carefully cut out and replaced, which is pretty damn cool when you consider how easy it is to repair the airplane. So long as enough of it survives, it can always be fixed and re-flown, but it also served as a reminder of just how fragile flight can be. So remember, count your turns!

The airplane kit is on the table in front of us. We have the glue, the little wooden pieces, and the instructions. We work for hours putting together each piece, step by step. A dab of glue here, a clamp there, maybe some rubber bands to hold the bigger pieces together. We work slowly, allowing the glue to set overnight, even though we want to see it fly right now. We follow each step in order, even though we think we know how to do it on our own. Patience is the most important asset we bring to this activity - the willingness to allow each step its own time and proper place.
After we've done all the careful work and waited till the glue is firm, we take it out for a trial flight. It soars!
So do we, when we allow ourselves time to learn each step of the way.

You are reading from the book:

Today's Gift by Anonymous

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