Description

The Pondhopper was designed to use a Falcon 40 wing kit from Goldberg, which is no longer available of course.  The Falcon has an open structure wing and huge spar joiners, and requires large sticks with unusual dimensions for the leading edge, trailing edge and spars.  In my kit for the standard Falcon wing, the ribs are sized for a 3/4″ thick leading edge and a 3/8″ thick trailing edge, with no notches.  The main spar and rear spar are 1/4 x 1 and 1/4 x 1/2, respectively.  Standard Falcon ribs are included in the Pondhopper kit.

If you don’t feel like building the crazy Goldberg Falcon 40 wing, I also offer an alternate wing with a 3/8″ balsa leading edge, 1/4″ balsa trailing edge, and 1/4″ bass or spruce spars on top and bottom.  The wing is to be built as a D Tube structure with 1/16″ balsa sheeting on top and bottom, 1/16″ shear webs, and cap strips.  Here is a standard wing rib and an alternate rib for your reference.  Overall outside dimensions of the wing are the same either way.

On the plan the engine pylon has a U-shaped cutout for a side mounted engine.  You can cut the pylon on the red line as shown in the diagram below, and install the included firewall on the front of the pylon, for mounting your engine on a standard nylon mount.

Just one other little detail:  The plan shows 3/32″ plywood on the bottom of the hull, but my kit has 1/16″ plywood for one simple reason.  I can buy a sheet of 1/16″ plywood with the grain running the wrong way, to allow a 15″ piece that will curve with the bottom of the fuselage, but I can’t get 3/32″ plywood with grain going that direction.