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.

The company that manufactors the model and motor is Spinmaster Toys.
http://www.spinmaster.com

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.

There's a FREE rocket waiting when you visit his site:http://www.spacecraftmodels.com/