Balsa USA FlyBaby Monoplane Review

Other Items Used:     Cowl, head rest, fin fairing and windshield from Fiberglass Specialties, control linkage parts from Sullivan Products, fuel system accessories from DuBro Products., Great Planes Pilot 

“Why do you want an airplane? Will you be making regular trips for long distances? Carrying passengers?  Blasting up to high altitudes?”

“Or are you just looking for a fun, knockaround airplane?  Something that doesn’t cost much to own?  Something that you can go sightseeing in without breaking the bank on fuel costs.  Something more substantial than an ultralight or ultralight-based design?”

“Take an honest look at the way you fly an airplane now.  Do you just make “Hundred Dollar Hamburger” runs on the weekends?  Do you fly just for the joy of flight?  Do you generally go by yourself?”

“Then maybe...MAYBE...a Fly Baby might be the plane for you.”

“The Fly Baby is a single-seat, open cockpit, folding-wing monoplane powered by engines ranging from 65 to 100 HP.  It was originally designed in 1960 to compete in the first (and so far, only EAA design competition).  It is built primarily of wood, with fabric covering. Most are powered by Continental A-65, C-75, C-85, or O-200 engines. Performance is sprightly; a bit better than that of, say, an Aeronca Champ.”

You may remember a while back reading my review on the Balsa USA 33% Fly Baby Biplane.  I still have that model and I thoroughly enjoyed building it and taking it to flying events all around my part of the country.  It isn’t a really large model, but at 1/3 scale, it is big enough to turn some heads.  It is powered by a relatively small gas engine, much like the full scale Fly Baby Biplane was.  It can loop, roll, stall-turn and many other non-scale aerobatic maneuvers with the best of them.  But it will also land at a proverbial walk and get off the ground just as fast as I would it want it to.  It is a really nice little “big plane”.

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to speak with Dave Lewis, one of the fine folks at Balsa USA who actually got me interested in the Fly Baby Biplane.  He casually mentioned to me that there were plans already in place to bring back the low wing version of the Fly Baby, complete with the operational folding wings.  I worked out the final arrangements to be on the list of folks who were going to get one of the first kits when they became available.

I got an email from Balsa USA informing me that the Fly baby Monoplane was on the way to me and mentioned what the cost of the kit was going to be.  At the time it seemed to be a lot higher than the biplane kit cost me, until I found out all the extras that were included with the kit.  The rather small size kit box arrived along with a second box that contained the ABS plastic cowl, headrest, tail fairing, seats and aluminum sheeting.  There are 5 rolled plan sheets including a reverse printed wing plan that is done that way so it matches the opposite side exactly.

The kit box weighs almost 25 pounds due to the fact that it contains more than 3 pounds of metal parts including brackets, hardware, wiring, tubing, music wires and more hardware.  I had originally only looked at the individual hardware bags, but after I opened up one and poured out the contents on the workbench, I realized all the labor and extra expense that Balsa USA went through to provide these parts.  Each and every metal bracket, plate and fitting was not only cut to size, it was also drilled and bent to its proper shape.  The only operation needed to complete the installation of these parts is to silver solder several of them together and decide where each one goes.  With all this hardware, I am beginning to wonder if the Fly Baby is only bolted and screwed together, with no gluing needed!

The instruction manual seems to be a reproduction of the original manual that came with the first release of the kit.  There are several references to products and techniques that are not available today and the printing looks to have come from a typewriter.  There are a number of black and white photos that show some of the building steps but not as many as found in the manuals for newer kits from Balsa USA. 

You also get a pair of DuBro 1/3 scale Cub wheels, a DuBro 32 ounce fuel tank, a custom made Ohio Superstar tail wheel assembly, some heavy duty pushrods and a number of steel rod and wire end fittings.  The cowl does not have molded in engine cylinders and the 32 page instruction explains that the kit was designed for use with a horizontally opposed twin cylinder engine.  I’ll order a fiberglass cowl with cylinders and other glass parts from Fiberglass Specialties later in the building process.

Also included are a detailed pilot seat and instrument panel that can be customized to match any Fly Baby, plus a set of two color registration numbers and “Fly Baby” names that match N500F, the original Fly Baby built by Pete Bowers.  No self-stick plastic numbers here, folks.  These are genuine vinyl graphics just like you buy from the popular graphics houses.

I then proceeded to inventory the wooden parts in the box starting with the die cut balsa and plywood sheets. Only the die cut sheets are listed on the inventory, while the sheet balsa, strip wood and pre-cut hardwood pieces are just lying in the kit box.  There are lots of wood parts included, so I am fairly confident that there will be enough wood.  The die cutting was not quite “fall out” quality, but every piece except one separated easily from the master sheets, and that one piece only needed a little help from my hobby knife.  The builder has to refer to the plan sheets to label all the individual ribs and formers.  The outlines of the rudder, elevators and wing tips are made from laminations of plywood centers with balsa on each side.  However, both the inner and outer pieces are exactly the same size.  If they were different sizes, there would be a lot more strength resulting from the overlapping joints rather than butt gluing the pieces together.

I am using Aerobond Express white glue from Vogelsang Aeroscale for most of the assembly process, with Pacer epoxy products and ZAP instant adhesives when necessary.  The Aerobond Express is a water based product that is used in a similar manner to traditional carpenter glue, but it cures well enough to move from the building board in about 10 minutes.  Full cure is 24 hours and it sands very well. 

With the work bench cleaned off, the fuselage plan was put down, covered with wax paper and construction begins by laminating balsa and plywood wing doublers and stab mounts.  The first fuselage side is then built using spruce longerons and balsa diagonals, and once this side is done, the second side is built over it to ensure they are both the same.  After sanding, another ply doubler is added to the inside of each side frame, allowed to dry and the sides are ready to be joined.  I made sure I made a left and a right side, so don’t even go there.

I marked and drilled the plywood firewall for my Zenoah G-38 engine and epoxied it to one fuselage side, followed by a pair of hardwood triangle stock reinforcements.  The light plywood formers were then installed along with triangle stock and the other fuselage side was glued in place using Pacer Zap-A-Gap.  I pinned the fuselage structure over the plans making sure the center lines on the formers were aligned to the plan center line.  Balsa cross pieces were then Zapped to the rear of the fuselage while forming the sides to match the plans.  I used a small carpenters square to keep the sides perfectly vertical.

The tail wheel mount and rudder post were Zapped into place and the custom Ohio Superstar tail wheel bracket was installed after drilling holes for the blind nuts.  The tail post and rear of the fuselage were rough sanded to approximate shape.

The next step involved silver soldering three metal pieces together to form the simulated turnbuckle used to hold the upper wing brace wires.  I used a propane torch with moderate success to apply the true high temperature silver solder wire, but I plan to look into a torch with a bit more heat output during the next silver soldering phase.

Several wood parts make up the mount on which the turnbuckle is bolted.  These fit ahead of and on top of the front cockpit former and must be drilled for a pair of angle brackets that hold the metal parts to the fuselage.  There are a total of 14 bolts and blind nuts that hold this seemingly simple structure together, but only two of them are removed to detach the wing panels from the fuselage.

The manual jumps ahead to a point where the builder had already added the upper fuselage sheeting so I skipped ahead.  I then installed the bottom hardwood stringers and found that the parts called out in the manual were not in the box.  It said to use the 55” spruce stringers, but since the shipping box was only 48” long, I decided that they were probably not in the box.  Instead I found several 36” long pieces of spruce strips that could be easily used for these stringers.  A second stringer was zapped on top of each of the first stringers and were planed and sanded to fair smoothly.

Another jump in assembly was found when it said to install the instrument panel permanently.  Since the plane had to be covered and painter, I decided to wait until later to install the instruments, but I will assemble the panel, plastic bezels and paper simulated gauges now.

The upper fuselage formers are now installed along with the rear spruce stringers.  Scrap balsa is fitted and glued between the rear of the stringers where the fin will be attached and balsa strips are glued along the front fuselage sides to which is attach the lower edges of the top sheeting.  This is made from 1/32” plywood that is cut oversized, trimmed to fit and glued to the structure. 

But wait, there’s more.  Over the plywood sheeting, the builder then cuts, fits and screws into place three pieces of thin aluminum to simulate the full scale Fly Baby.  Yes, I did say “screw into place”.  This aluminum is not attached with any adhesives at all.  Tiny #0 slot head screws, dozens of them, are installed into equally as many tiny drilled holes spaced in a scale like manner.  Since the fuselage is almost done at this point I decided to leave the aluminum in place rather than remove it to prevent denting during handling.  The fiberglass head rest can be trimmed to size and installed using hardwood rails and more of those tiny screws. 

I had ordered a fiberglass cowl and windshield frame from Fiberglass Specialties and I’ll trim the windshield later on after the plane has been covered and painted.  That piece is also installed with those tiny screws, and I’m tired of, well you know what I mean.

The fuselage isn’t completely finished but according to the manual, it’s time to start on the wing panels.  Spruce front and rear spars are already tapered on the wing tips and must be labeled as Forward and Aft, since they are different.  There’s also a smaller front spar that you have to taper yourself and using several of the die cut ribs, all three spars are pinned to the plans over wax paper.  Then a number of balsa and plywood ribs are laminated together for extra strength.  The aileron servos are mounted on one of these doubled ribs and once the covering is in place, they are never to be seen again.  I may make provisions for access on the underside of the wing.  Also the servo wires are supposed to exit the wing roots through the rotating joint that enables the wings to fold.  I will not follow this procedure and instead use plugs and jacks at the wing roots that can be unplugged when the wings are folded.  I feel that electrical wires inside a rotating brass tube may be subject to wear and tear during flight.

Once the laminated ribs are dry, they are installed over the plans using a small square to keep them perfectly vertical.  The root ribs are not installed until the wing panels are ready to be aligned to the fuselage.  I noticed that the bottoms of the ribs were not flat, but instead had a slight under camber.  It was not as much as some WW1 models I had built, but it was there.   Once the ribs were in place and the glue had set up, the upper balsa spar was glued to them.  The wing tips are made from more laminated pieces with a plywood center and they were installed according to the manual.  Before I build the second wing panel, I will laminate everything that needs to be laminated, let them cure over night and begin construction without any “lamination delays”.

The ailerons are then built using more ribs and an angled leading edge that uses the rib angle to set its position.  The trailing edge at the outer edge is made from thicker balsa to match the shape and location of the wing tip parts.  I added the cap strips and control horn mount and then built up the control linkage.  I used 4-40 linkage parts rather than the 2-56 parts supplied in the kit and made the pushrod straight from the servo arm to the horn.  There is even material in the kit for a pushrod fairing to cover the linkage.

With the glue cured on the wing panel, the inner leading edge is glued in place and trimmed to match the curve of the ribs.  Leading edge sheeting is then installed and I used ZAP-A-GAP on the front spar and Aerobond Express on the ribs and leading edge, taping it down securely.  Then the main leading edge is glued in place, trimmed and sanded and the wing is almost complete.  Cap strips were added, all the rough edges were sanded, minor low spots filled and sanded and that panel is just about done.  I laminated and the ribs and wing tip parts and built the other panel over the reversed plans.  The backwards text made it difficult to understand but no major problems were encountered.

Next in line are the tail parts, starting with the horizontal stab and elevator halves.  I read ahead in the manual and laminated all the parts that will be needed and let them dry overnight.  The stab trailing edge and elevator leading edge is made from 1” tall balsa and once pinned down, the ribs and leading edge parts are added using balsa spacers to keep the ribs at the correct level.  Before the glue sets up, it appears that the stab is being constructed in mid-air, which is correct.  This way, all the parts come out glued together correctly and once the leading edge sheeting and other parts are joined, the structure is very sturdy.  Some planing and sanding brings everything to the correct shape and once the tail brace wire mounts are bolted into place, the stab is complete.

The first step in the elevator construction sequence requires silver soldering of the torque tube to the elevator horn.  Once I figured out how to set the gas flow on the oxygen/acetylene torch from Bernzomatic, it soldered perfectly.  The torque tube is then slid (with great difficulty) over a wooden dowel that is then glued to both elevator leading edges.  Since the elevator halves are built together, they will come out in perfect alignment.  Ribs, laminated trailing edges and cap strips are then glued in place followed by shaping and sanding to match the trailing edge of the stab.  The leading edge is then shaped at angles for the required elevator throws, hinges added and all that is needed is final sanding.  The plans show only two hinges per side, which matches the full size Fly Baby.  I added two more per side since I want to err on the side of safety.

The fin and rudder are built in the same manner as the horizontal stab and elevators with a trailing edge, ribs leading edge and sheeting glued n place in that order.  Since the rudder is very thin at the trailing edge, I made sure that it will not warp.  Nobody likes a warped rudder, do they?  The elevator horn actually fits inside the vertical fin along with the single pushrod and I began to wonder about the order of assembly for all the tail parts and whether they are going to be assembled before or after covering.  I trust that the manual will give some insight on this subject in the coming pages.

I gave the above subject a considerable amount of thought, weighing ease of assembly and covering, safety, and keeping the Fly Baby looking 100% scale.  In the end I deferred toward safety and assembly ease.  I cut the two elevator halves apart at the center and added a pair of plywood elevator control horn mounts on the under side of each one.  I will then use a pair of wooden dowels with 4-40 rods in each end of them to connect the elevators to the pair of servos to be installed behind the seat on the under side of the fuselage.  The rudder servo will be located here also and they will be covered by a removable hatch attached between the lower spruce stringers.  This will allow both the fin and stab to be temporarily installed for alignment and removed for covering and painting.  The fiberglass fairing will then be installed to cover all the edges. 

Next on the list are the main landing gear and all the silver soldering necessary to hold the steel parts together.  I used a Bernzomatic MAPP/Oxygen torch to silver solder the parts together along with some terse high temperature silver solder I purchased online. Making sure each part was cleaned and de-greased I used either music wire clamps, a set of “third hands” soldering assistants or something I found lying around the shop to keep the gear parts in place while heating them.  Once the parts are hot enough, the silver solder just flows around the joint making a perfect fillet than looks beautiful.  A wire wheel then is used to clean up the parts.  All the gear parts tool about an hour or so to solder together, not including cooling time.

With that hurdle cleared, it’s time to jump another one, this one being aligning the wings to the fuselage and bolting them in place.  Picture this.  The fuselage is floating in space.  The wings are also floating in space.  Now try to join the 3 pieces, making sure everything is lined up perfectly, all angle correct and then try to mark bolt holes in wing mounting plates that are also floating in space inside the fuselage.  The steel wing mount brackets were bolted to the spars and the nuts for the mounting bolts were soldered to the plates.  These bolts are the ones that are removed when the wing needs to be removed or folded.

I started by following what is written in the manual (Imagine that!)  I drew a straight line down the length of the work bench about 2” from the front edge.  I then drew a second line perpendicular to the first one, in the center of the board.   I drew center lines on the lower parts of each fuselage former and set the fuselage on the board, aligning the centers to the perpendicular line.  I used several dead starter batteries to hold the fuselage in place and raised it up using a pair of 1” sticks to provide clearance for the root ribs on the wings.  The holes in the sides of the fuselage for the steel wing mount brackets had to be widened to allow ease of entry.  I calculated the dihedral and used another pair of dead batteries to prop the wing tips off the board, taking into consideration the 1” at which the fuselage was already raised.

The wing panels were inserted into the fuselage and the pair of formers that hold the wing bolts were slipped down over the steel brackets and aligned to the bottom stringers.  Now the fun begins.  The wing leading edges have to be parallel to the line along the front of the board, the fuselage has to remain straight and the distance between the wing tips and the tail post has to be equal on both sides.  I won’t bore you with the gory details of how many times I measured, adjusted, removed, sanded, replaced, realigned, re-measured and so on.  Let’s just say it took the better part of 2 hours to get everything perfect, or at least with 1/16” of being perfect.  All that being done, I marked the holes for the wing bolts and removed the fuselage wing formers for drilling.  Once drilled, the fuselage formers were reinstalled, the wing bolts screwed into place and everything was checked for alignment.  Amazingly, everything was within that magical 1/16” alignment measurement and the fuselage formers were tack glued into position.  They were then reinforced with hardwood triangle stock and epoxy and the wing mounting process was finally complete.

The set of 16 flying and landing wires are made up from braided wire, thimbles, crimps, adapters and forks.  The top landing wires are made up first, with the wings held at the proper dihedral using several stacks of magazines on the outboard end.  A wire adapter is cleaned and the braided wire is folded over and inserted, making sure the short end remains inside the adapter.  Low temperature solder is used to keep the wire in place, but the parts must be clean to allow the solder to stick.  I found that pre-tinning both the wire and the adapter first provided the best joint.

The other end of the wire is made by running it through a crimp sleeve, passing it through the metal wing bracket using a thimble to keep the strands from wearing and breaking and then passing it back through the crimp sleeve where it is both crimped and soldered.  The process is repeated 7 more times for the top wires and after the main gear is attached to the fuselage, the flying wires can be fabricated in the same manner, for a total of 16 wires.  This process sounds easy enough to complete, but it took more than 6 hours to complete all 16 wires.  You have to remember that these wires hold the entire weight of the airplane in flight, so care must be taken to ensure that they are all built correctly.  I even pull tested each one with a digital fish scale to 50 pounds plus, just to be sure.

The wing folding mechanism consists of a pair of brass tubes mounted in either side of the fuselage, through which pass a pair of steel tubes that are connected to the wing fixture and can pivot in all directions.  It sounds simple enough, but it takes more time to understand how all the parts work than it does to actually built the mechanism.  There is supposed to be a stop ring to keep the steel tubes from sliding out, but I wanted to be able to remove the wings completely so I left them off.   This mechanism has noting to do with holding the wing in place during flight.  It is only used to fold the wings, so it does not need much support.  Once it is complete the wings can be folded back along the fuselage for display, and assembly for flight will take less than 10 minutes at the field.

I wanted to use the fiberglass tail fairing parts from Fiberglass Specialties but after looking at them, I realized that they were actually designed for the sport scale version of the Fly Baby monoplane that has flat tail surfaces and not the full scale version that has airfoiled surfaces.  Instead I carved a pair of balsa blocks to match the curves of the tail parts and I will cover and paint these later, gluing them in after the tail parts are installed.

I made up the elevator and rudder control linkages after mounting the 3 Spektrum 6020 digital servos under the head rest area.  A small metal hatch will be used for access from the underside of the fuselage.  I used the pull-pull wires and hardware in the kit and installed a pair of plastic rods from the servo area to the rear fuselage sides through which will pass the wires.  I used a pair of wooden dowels and 4-40 rods for the elevator push rods and will keep them inside the fuselage until the plane is covered.  Several cross braces were installed to keep the pushrods from flexing and to keep the plastic rudder wire tubes from interfering with them.

Final details included mounting the cowl with brass tubes and tiny hitch pin clips, assembling and painting the “suitcase bomb” that is mounted under the fuselage, building the pilot seat and making it removable, fabricating the metal covers over the wing tilt mechanism and several other minor operations.  Then it was outside the workshop for finish sanding and preparation for covering and painting.  The receiver, batteries and power switches will be installed after the plane is completed and the location of any additional balance weight is noted.

With the final sandpapering and dusting completed, it was time to apply the SolarTex covering, but I ran into a small problem.  There were manufacturing defects in the 10 meter roll of yellow SolarTex and a replacement had to be ordered.  The covering for the wing panels and fuselage were cut out first, using the “scraps” for smaller parts like ailerons, elevators and rudder.  I covered the small parts first, followed by the bigger parts, and waited at least 24 hours to see if any wrinkles or bubbles showed up.  Everything was then re-shrunk in preparation for finishing.

I have been using clear water base polyurethane on SolarTex as a base coat for both the trim paint and the graphics and this process was used on the Fly Baby monoplane.  A light coat was applied to all surfaces and allowed to dry for at least 4 hours.  Then a second heavier coat was applied, waiting a full 24 hours to check for gaps or “holidays” as my late father-in-law used to call them. 

The full scale Fly Baby has metal sheeting over the front and rear turtle decks and on the front sides of the fuselage, and thin aluminum sheeting is used on the scale model.  I had cut these parts out earlier and applied 2 coats of primer in preparation for the trim color application.  The panels were lined up, holes drilled and 182 #0 Phillips head screws were used to keep the panels in place.  Yes, I did count them!  I had a choice of painting the panels in the trim color before applying them or screwing them in place prior to painting.  Remembering how clumsy I am with a screwdriver, I decided to screw them in place and paint everything including the screw heads later.  The head rest was also screwed into place, but the windshield will be added after everything has been painted.

With all the structures covered with SolarTex, it was time for the application of the final finish.  I decided to brush on several coats of clear gloss water base polyurethane to brighten the yellow of the fabric and to provide a smoother surface on which the trim paint could be applied.  The aluminum panels around the cockpit and behind the engine area were attached using 198 tiny #0 wood screws (ask me how I remembered that number) and the fiberglass head rest was also screwed into place.  After the polyurethane dried for at least 24 hours, I began masking the various trim outlines with flexible automotive masking tape followed by painters tape and finally brown paper covering the structures. 

My painting area is outside in the driveway and luckily the day I chose for painting was warm, dry and practically no breeze at all.  Each part was sprayed with a light coat of the trim paint using Valspar Maroon from a spray can.  This was the same color used on the Fly Baby biplane and the de Havilland DH-2.  Once the light first coat dried for about an hour, a second slightly heavier coat was applied and allowed to dry for another hour.  Then the final heavier coat was applied and allowed to dry for yet another hour before moving all the parts back inside the workshop. Everything was allowed to cure for 24 hours before removing the masking tape and paper.  Then after 48 hours to be sure the paint was indeed dry, I applied the "cheater stripes" using 1/4" white and 1/8" black striping tape.  The N500F registration numbers and other graphics included in the kit were then added.  Black rubber tubing was split and installed on both sides of the cockpit to simulate the coaming found on the Fly Baby.

It was time to put all the parts together, starting with the main landing gear and tail wheel assembly.  Then the engine and fuel tank were installed, followed by the receiver, power switches and batteries.  The flying and landing wire assemblies were bolted to the wing panels and it was time to figure out the best order in which to attach the wings to the fuselage.  I plugged one panel into the spar slots in the fuselage and tried to insert the wing bolts, finding that it was difficult to get the bolts to go through the fuselage formers and thread into the nuts on the mounting straps.  I then ground a sharp point on each mounting bolt and these points easily found the threads in the nuts and automatically centered the bolts for easy installation.

The rest of the wing mounting process involved attaching the flying wire bracket to the wheel axle, raising the wing tip and pulling the landing wire bracket tight to insert the bolt inside the fuselage.  Once the other wing was installed in a similar manner, they were checked for dihedral angle and any twists were removed by loosening or tightening the wires.   Disassembly was a lot easier and I found that assembly time would be about 20 minutes or less.

The control surface movements were programmed into the radio system and I set the ailerons up to give about 2" up and 1/2" down throw to minimize adverse yaw.  The other throws were set per the dimensions given in the manual. Throttle throw was set up, a kill switch was fabricated and installed and it was time to check the weight and balance. I was happy when the scale read 23 pounds 4 ounces minus fuel, but I was a little concerned when the nose dropped as the plane was balanced at the 25% point on the wing.  I moved the pair of receiver batteries behind the cockpit and then the plane balanced level at the 25% point, a great place to start.

After installing the windshield, pilot seat and pilot figure, I took the plane outside to run the engine and do some taxi testing.  The G-38 started easily by hand and after adjusting the idle speed and mixture, I set up the fail-safe on the Spektrum radio system to lower the engine speed to idle if the receiver lost contact with the transmitter.  The Fly Baby was then taxied to the street and I found that ground handling was very good despite the slight breeze trying the push the tail one way or the other.  After disassembling the plane, plans were made for the test flying session the following weekend.

I arranged for my assistant test pilot, Rick Cawley, to meet me at the field on a sunny and warm day, more specifically New Years Eve, 2011.  The Fly Baby Low Wing was assembled, ground photos were taken and after fueling the tank and making a static radio range check, the G-38 was started and the radio was checked once more.  With Rick handling the video camera, I taxied the Fly Baby to the end of the grass runway and advanced the throttle slowly.  The plane accelerated smoothly, the tail came up and once full power was added the Fly Baby was off the ground and climbing.  It needed several clicks of up elevator trim, but due to the slight gusts of wind, I was unable to determine if it actually needed any rudder or aileron trim.

After settling down at about 3/4 throttle, the Fly Baby was flown through basic left and right turns to see how it handled.  While there wasn't an over abundance of power, there was enough to pull it up and over a loop or two.  I did a gentle roll to the right and aileron throw was determined to be sufficient.  I then got brave and called out for a touch and go.  Lining up with the runway, the power was cut to a high idle, the nose dropped and the Fly Baby settled down into a one bounce and short roll out.  Power was added and the plane took off once again.

After several more circuits of the field, I decided to come in for a landing, again reducing power on final approach, adding a bit to keep the nose level and using elevator to slow the descent, the Fly Baby settled in for a one wheel and one wing tip landing, not exactly what I planned, and I blamed it on that final gust of wind.  I brought the plane back to the pit area and checked the tension of the flying and landing wires, finding no major looseness.

After discussing the flight with Rick and the others at the field, the Fly Baby was refueled, the batteries checked and Rick was at the controls.  He asked me what he wanted me to do during the flight and I suggested that he fly it just as he flew his big half scale Jungmeister.  With that in mind, Rick aimed the nose of the plane straight the runway, added power and this takeoff was as smooth and steady as I had ever seen.  Rick piloted the Fly Baby through many scale maneuvers, with each one looking really good and very prototypical.  He commented that the gusty wind conditions were not very good for determining how well a new plane flew, but he also commented that the Fly Baby handled it quite well.  We also began to notice that the engine seemed to be slowing just a little.  Rick brought it back to the ground and once we got it back to the pit area, we discovered that the carburetor had loosened and was about to fall off.  How the engine had remained operational with the carburetor wobbling like this was beyond belief, but once it was retightened, the engine seemed to be running a lot better than when we had started the test flying.

The Fly Baby was flown again and with the additional power it seemed to fly a lot better and with more authority.  The gusty winds didn't seem to be bothering the forward progress, but it did wag the tail from side to side every so often.  After the final landing, Rick and I sat down and determined that the Fly Baby was a really nice plane to fly, even on a breezy day, once the engine was running a lot better with all its parts connected tightly.  It looked great in the air and on the ground too.  We were satisfied with its performance and I'm look forward to taking it to some of our local flying events once the weather warms up in the spring.

The 1/3 Scale Fly Baby Low Wing from Balsa USA was a really nice kit to build and fly. The plans and instructions are adequate for the experienced builder to follow, but I don't recommend this plane to the first time kit builder.  Even with my many years of building experience, I had to think over a few of the construction steps to see exactly how things were supposed to be done.  It is, however, a very complete kit, with everything needed to complete the assembly included in the 2 kit boxes.  The formed plastic cowl and other detail parts can be used if desired, but many builders may decide to replace these with aftermarket fiberglass pieces as I did.  The wheels, gas tank, tail wheel assembly and other parts supplied are not normally found in other kits.  The rigging wires, metal brackets and more than 3 pounds of hardware make this kit easily worth the purchase price.  I recommend the Balsa USA Fly Baby Low Wing to any modeler with building experience as a first time scale model

You'll be seeing my Fly Baby out at the field in the months to come, and you may even see it at one or two of the upcoming flying contests if all goes well