Here are a few shots and a bit of the story of how I got the FG Ryan to fly.

It all started with this e-charger airplane my Mother-in-law gave me for Christmas as a bit of a gag gift. Well I played with it and it got beaten up pretty quick. Being a bit of a tinkerer I started wondering what else I could do with it. As you know a whole lot of people have asked about making a free flight paper model so I thought it might be a good match.

I chose the PT-16 Ryan trainer because it has nice big wings and was close to the size I needed. So I removed the engine from the e-charger using an x-acto knife I took the engine and mounted it in the cowling of the Ryan. As you can see it was a close fit.

I built the rest of the Ryan as normal except I left out the instrument panels and seats. I also added a couple of tabs to hold the cowling in place. I slid the engine and cowling right into place and glued them.Ta-Da, finished Ryan. All that was left to do was take it outside, charge the engine, toss it lightly into the air and then watch and pray.

It flew just great although I can make some suggestions to anyone else building free flight paper aircraft. One thing I would do is make sure the plane has a nice dihedral. I didn't build quite enough dihedral into mine. Also make sure that you cut the rudder so that it can be adjusted to compensate for torque. This project took me a day to build and fly. Now I've been ordering micro engines and already planning my next flying FG model.

Still flying. Climbs great !! Bit of a turn to the left issue (construction no doubt). Needs increased dihedral for better glide effect. When the engine dies the flight goes south in a hurry. Pulled a lawn dart but went on to fly five times. Final flight made with one missing landing gear after earlier flight damage. A coat of lacquer would add weight but would increase strength considerably. In the next flying model I will increase size a little more and add the lacquer. Also future flyers will have a lithium battery and a micro electric engine. More time on glide tests in the future but dang, it flew.

Dan is well deserving of the 'handle' Rocket Man, having designed quite a few really neat space craft models- one one which is John Glenn's Mercury Space Capsule.