About four years ago I decided I was going to build a balsa wood rubber powered model airplane. It's wings span was 24" if I remember correctly, it was a bi-plane. I fussed and fused with it after I got done with the designing and then the construction trying to get it to fly. I thought if something like this had a wing, stabilizer, rudder and a power source it would fly. Boy was I wrong. I thought a good flight would be from my door, across the small parking lot and to the side walk.

Then I got my computer. I searched and searched the web for information on airplane design. I bought a book on airplane design but being terrible at math I didn't understand most of it. But I learned a lot from the pictures, graphs and diagrams. I set out to design, build and fly a successful rubber powered free flight model airplane.

The free flight class of model airplanes are the planes without control surfaces. Onced launched by the "pilot" they are on their own. And a "model" airplane is any design which isn't a real airplane flown by a passenger pilot. They come in a lot of sizes from wing spans of a few inches to several feet. The larger planes require a lot of rubber for power.

On the web I discovered flight times of more than thirty minutes and I was floored. I set out to build a plane according to one of the competition class specifications with an 18" wing span. Once I "trimmed" it - setting the power off glide so it glided in a slightly downward angle after a gentile toss, I took it out to the large field a short walk away to try it. It crashed and the stick fuselage broke; some of the smaller models have only a "stick" for a fuselage ( body ). I still really didn't know much. Some of the guys at the free flight forum I visit were frustrated with me because I wouldn't take their advice.

I rebuilt it with a stronger fuselage and took it out to fly. It flew and as I was standing there watching I wondered "When is this thing going to land?" There is something wonderfull about a hunk of wood defying gravaty for an extended moment in time.

I have built a lot of planes since. Some are from kits, some self designed and built from scratch and some I've modified from an existing design. I now know more about what is needed. 

If you're thinking about trying this out, honestly, there are kits out there which require a lot of modifications before they will fly. There are outdoor duration models, indoor and indoor duration, scale planes which are a copies of real airplanes and everything else you can think of.

Though I've made several kit planes, I succeeded in designing, building and flying  planes of my own and what a thrill it is when I take them out to fly. I think not everyone wants to do their own from scratch design and build. I'm one who does but half of the 50 or so planes I'm made have been failures; some of those were due to poor construction ( way too light ) and some poor design. You would think that the lighter a plane is then the better it will fly. That's true but it has to be able to withstand the stress of a tightly wound rubber motor and it has to land without breaking. But this is my cup of tea.

So now I'm taking a break soon and am going to build proven designs from kits. It's still fun.