30 Chuckstangs

Father Goat

New member
Hello All,

My daughter and I made 30 Chuckstangs for a school market day project. The idea was to create a product and sell it at market in school. We built a prototype Chuckstang from NerdNicRC's site. I made a few modifications to make it a little stronger around the wing and easier to cut and made a template from that. My daughter did all the tracing, 3 planes per board on 10 boards, I did the cutting, and she did all the gluing and colored some of the models. It was a good bit of work but well worth it. They sold like hot cakes and the kids really liked them. They like coloring them in as much as throwing them around. Only thing I would do next time is strengthen the tail in some way as it gets fatigued from crashes. NerdNicRC has about a half dozen or so different glider designs. I would recommend these gliders for a similar project or just for fun. The kids have fun with it.

Take Care,



30 ChuckStangs.jpg
 

Father Goat

New member
Thanks FDS,

I forgot to mention, I also reduced the size, 70% I think in order to get them a little smaller and the plans fit on 3 pieces of paper. I didn't do the dihedral either as it complicated production and made fitting the wings more difficult. They flew great regardless.
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
Great work!

It looks like my last year's Cub Scout day camp project! how did you cut them.
 

Father Goat

New member
Foamy,

I tried using scissors to see if my daughter could cut them herself but it just didn't work. So I made a template she used to trace them all out and I used a razor blade to cut them. I like to use a long metal ruler as a straight edge for cutting whenever I can. I'll give a score cut pass along the edge and then pass through again to get through. Makes cleaner cuts for me. Nice and light and easy on the blade. Sharp blades and light passes will make good clean cuts. I'll see if I can teach her this. I think kids could use the balde if shown how to keep straight with light passes on the foam.
 

FDS

Elite member
WhenI have built with kids I did all the cutting in bulk, they can’t all concentrate that long on it, it’s quite boring/zen as opposed to making, painting and flying.
 

Father Goat

New member
WhenI have built with kids I did all the cutting in bulk, they can’t all concentrate that long on it, it’s quite boring/zen as opposed to making, painting and flying.
That's what I did. She was running out of gas tracing. It's a good bit of work and hard to stay focused that long. I'll see if I can get her to try cutting one, if not, like you said it's the painting and playing they want to do. I'm making a version of a simple soarer now and my two girls are all geared up to paint it.
 

FDS

Elite member
That sounds fun. When I made stuff with kids for work they all enjoyed the decorating steps as much as flying. I had some lovely detail added, like airliner windows and passengers, they made their own airline logos in the tail, it was great.
 

ffjett3ch

New member
I also recently used Nerdnic's ChuckStangs for an activity with a group of special needs kids. My daughter has autism. This social group we met through special Olympics gets together as much for the parents as for the kids. I took the liberty of borrowing his ChuckStang's dimensions and build-methods to produce a ChuckBirdie as well. I pre-cut the components and the kids and adults decorated them. My son helped me glue/assemble them and then we all flew the finished gliders. Much fun!!!
Chuck 1.jpg
chuck2.jpg chuck5.JPG chuck4.JPG Chuck3.JPG