Hi Doug,
Thanks for the very kind email! I spent around six months researching and collecting as much information about the Carbon Dragon from so many different sources before I started working on my re-design and build. I figured I might as well put it all together in one place for easy reference for anyone else who came along after me - the website has seen an incredible level of interest from all around the world so there's still a lot of interest in the design after all those years! I'm delighted you found it useful. If you do go ahead and start building a CD for yourself then please keep in touch and let me have any photos and notes you feel might help others, and I'll add them to the archive.
Rick Mullins (USA) is the last builder that I am aware of to have completed a CD and flown it. Rick made his leading edges out of carbon fibre (2
layers) and also his wing spars (1 layer of CF) using carbon rods for the spar caps. The rest of his glider (wing ribs and fuselage etc.) are made from spruce according to the original plans and builders manual. Rick is more than happy to discuss his build if you ask him. You can reach him through the Yahoo "Carbondragonbuildersandpilots" group (see the Forums menu in my website) - his group name is "flyingdude" or something similar.
The Carbon Dragon plans are incredibly detailed but there are a few errors here and there that you need to watch out for. Steve Adkins has found and documented *most* of them in his notes here:
www.ihpa.ie/carbon-dragon/index.php/home...s#notes-modification
s.
To answer both of your questions in one go... There is a glaring error in the plans (which I see has caught you out already!!) The plans repeatedly mention "8mm plywood" when in fact it should read "0.8mm". This is equivalent to 1/32". In the original plans, both the leading edges and the spar-webs are all made of 1/32" (or 0.8mm) thick 3-ply plywood. Yasushi Akahori (Japan) built his CD entirely out of wood and should be able to offer you some advice about working with this paper-thin plywood!
I'm taking a different route in building my CD - I am fabricating everything out of carbon fibre because I am worried about what effect our very 'humid'
Irish weather will have on 0.8mm plywood. Rick Mullins had problems with his 0.8mm plywood warping badly (I think he ended up sealing the plywood with epoxy resin.) Rick keeps his CD at Wallaby Ranch in Florida, where there are at least three other Carbon Dragons hangered there. I just de-moulded my first section of leading edge made of carbon fibre - it looks really great!
Doug - please keep in touch and let me know how you are progressing. I'd be happy to answer any questions if I can.
All the best,
Phil.
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Subject: Carbon Dragon new builder
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Top of the morning to you.
My name is Doug Maloney, from Belleville, Ontario, Canada.
I wish to congratulate you on your lovely, neat, and properly organized website.
I built a Fauvel AV36 sail-wing about 40 years ago or more, got destroyed in a barn fire in 1996.
Now retired, I am ready to start again. A wood project. I was soul searching for the last while between a Woodstock or a Carbon Dragon, and the discovery of your website made up my mind.
I went thru all the reading material on your website, and I must say that there are some great writers out there. I wish that I could be so fluent in English, my mother tong is French.
I did download the plans and the manual plus your very important notes.
Thank you. I am at my first reading and second plans study. Every thing is strait forward.
I shall begin with the wings.
I have two question: 1 - The spar web is 8mm or about 1/4\" ?
2 - The nose skin on the D cell 1/32\" ?
Just to make sure.
My best regards.
dougmaloney
