| Type: |
Heavy floater |
| Wingspan:
| 76-100" |
| Wing Area: |
??? sq in |
| Airfoil: | Flat bottom
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| Weight: | ??? |
| Construction: |
Styrofoam fuselage and wings with wood reinforcement |
| Controls: | Rudder, elevator |
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Don't look at the above picture if you have a weak stomach. This is what happens to a Spirt of '76 after a year or so in the hands of a newbie pilot. Actually, this was my second Spirit. I broke the wing in two on the first one, and my friend gave me his slightly used one, which he wasn't flying anymore. Note the epoxy coated nose and cool shark mouth, the heavy wood reinforcement on the outside of the cockpit, the epoxy ahead of the leading edge where the forward fuselage had broken off, the heavily glassed (and reglassed) wing center section, and the multiple strips up glass tape around the tail boom where it broke again and again. Take special note of the horizontal stab, which is in fact, no longer horizontal. Suprisingly, it didn't seem to fly any worse with the stab like this (of course, this might have been since it never flew all that good in the first place).
Those of you with a keen eye for detail may also notice that the wing looks a bit longer then a stock Spirit of '76. In fact, I chopped the wing tips off my original plane and grafted them onto this one, extending the wingspan to an impressive 8 feet. It flew as good as it looked.
Below left, the Spirit as it originally was, and right, how it ended up.
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