Chuck Glider for younger students (plans included)

by aviator08 | February 13, 2016 | (9) Posted in Projects

Recently I had the opportunity to help out at my stepdaughter's school for their ecomonics fair. Each group of students had to come up with different items to make and sell. The students were to buy the materials, make the items they had decided on, and sell them (for fake money) to the other students in their school. This was to teach the value of having a viable product, how much product to make, how much it was worth, to a certain extent marketing, and of course profit and loss. Mind you, this was at an elementary school. While discussing the different options the students were considering, airplanes came into the discussion and my ears instantly perked up! The conversation turned to sock snowmen, but my mind was off and running. What could I put together that would be inexpensive, easy to assemble for the students, and would have a certain "cool factor"? I raced down to the garage, (my aircraft invention studio) and started drawing and cutting. A couple of hours later I emerged with my offering for their event.

I thew it across the livingroom to my stepdaughter and a big smile came across her face. This could be just what they needed! Of course they would still do the sock snowmen, that had a BIG "cool factor". She asked if she could take it to school the next day to show it to the other girls in her group to get their approval. I instantly agreed hoping that this would be something that would interest 5th grade girls. The next day after school I waited anxiously in the car as she came out of school. Did this meet the approval of her team?

Yes! They loved it. In fact they played with it so much that they tore the wing off. Success!! In fact, at least one of the boys in her class said he couldn't wait until the economics fair so he could buy one.

Now to turn it into something they could duplicate. I sat down and copied off the design onto poster board to make a template they could trace.

I gave her the templates and asked her how many she wanted to make. She stated that they would make 24 of the gliders to go along with the sock snowmen. I encouraged her to make 36 of them, and she agreed. I would have to do the cutting to keep them safe, but I certainly didn't mind that.

A couple of weeks later it was time for the economics fair. The aircraft were cut out, the weights were installed in the nose; everything was ready for the big event. I was pretty sure they would sell, but not to sure if they would sell all of them. How would they be received by the students in her school?

Here is their stand ready for the fair to start. They had a great success and sold all of the gliders...a couple of the boys even bought two of them (and yes, they also sold out of the sock snowmen as well). In fact their team made the most (fake money) of all the teams. Congratulations to the "The Sky is the Limit" team! By the way, they came up with that slogan all by themselves. The gliders were really received well by the students and the adults that attended. They sold out of them about three-quarters of the way through the event (she was glad I had encouraged them to make 36 of them).

I thought this might be something that others could use for younger students and have included a PDF of the plans below. Two copies of the fuselage will need to be printed out, one for the outline of the fuselage and one for the slots in the fuselage for the stabilizer and wing. I used about 3/4 of a segment of weight for the nose that I cut out to fit the size of the weight. I also put a bead of hot glue in front of the weight so that it would protect whatever the glider flew into. The paper on the bottom of the wing needs pealed off so it will bend to make the curved wing.

During the time that we were waiting for the fair, I made a couple other gliders as well just for the fun of it. They were a little more complicated and I did not want to add them to the offering, but they did sell the "one offs" at the fair as well.

Needless to say, they sold first. :-)

 

It was a lot of fun to see the enjoyment of the students with their gliders. It certainly turned out to be a big hit.

The glider is a good flyer and I hope others can benifit from this also.

Here is the PDF of the plans. It is set up to print on 11x 17 paper.  Enjoy! 

Chuck Glider pdf 

And now added , the other glider plans.

Pond Racer Glider pdf

Pond Racer Glider pdf (tiled)

 X-Wing Plans pdf

X-Wing Plans pdf( tiled )

COMMENTS

magicmerlin on February 20, 2016
What a good stepdad, not enough of them around. What kind of weights were used and where did you purchased them. Great plane!
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aviator08 on February 22, 2016
Thanks, I used weights from Tower Hobbies, they can be found here: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXK204&P=ML
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FoamTest on August 1, 2016
I recently designed my own chuck glider and I used pennies as nose weight, it is really the cheapest and most available weight around.
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aviator08 on August 2, 2016
Great idea! We just had our annual fun fly at our club, and used the chuck glider as a free build for youth that attended. I was able to get weight strips with sticky backs for free from the local tire shops.
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1959cutter on February 21, 2016
how about a PDF for the plans on that cool starfighter???
that should be a tutorial all it's own.
I don't have the skill to design,but I sure can copy others!
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aviator08 on February 22, 2016
My stepdaughter asked me to make another one for one of her freinds in school so I will re-create it and draw it up for a PDF. I will add this to the article when completed. Glad you like it. It flew ok, but not near as good as the glider.
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aviator08 on February 24, 2016
PDF plans for the X-Wing are now included in the article.
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dgross07 on February 22, 2016
Did you just print off the PDF plan on a 8.5x11 or did you enlarge it? If so, what is the best size to go with? Thanks.
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aviator08 on February 22, 2016
I saved it to print on an 11x 17 page. That way it would take only one sheet.
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jksbusiness on March 3, 2016
Great project for the after school group at the elementary school where I teach. I am going to pick up the weights at a local craft store. They look like the same material we used for the pinewood derby cars.
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aviator08 on March 6, 2016
Yep. I believe they are. Glad you can use it. Enjoy!
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Ken Stewart on June 9, 2016
Where did you set the C of G for each of the gliders?
You show it on the Pond Racer, but not on the others
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aviator08 on June 10, 2016
I don't remember if I measured the others. I do know that the simple glider uses 3/16 of an oz to balance it out placed in the nose of it. The X-wing needs a little in the tail, but I don't see where I wrote it down. I do know it is very sensitive to the amount. It did not fly near as well as the others. Hope this helps.
Tim
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FoamTest on August 1, 2016
How do you make digital plans? I have some designs of my own and I would love to share them, and also use them for my aviation club I am starting at my school this year.
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aviator08 on August 2, 2016
DoubleCAD XT is a free download . There are tutorials available also.
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Kdobson83 on August 19, 2016
Thanks for the plans! Will build tonight with my son. Dan Sponholz is working with the FliteTest guys and I think they might be working on getting the FT Venture as free plans. Their F-22 glider looks awesome too. Thanks again!!
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fvlewg65 on December 5, 2019
This looks awesome, I’m going to build a couple of all of them. Where is the CG on all of them? I see the basic glider is 3/16 oz but what about the X wing and the Pond? Thank you
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aviator08 on December 5, 2019
I don't have those recorded... I think I just did trial and error on them :-)
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prayer3290 on October 13, 2021
That x-wing is so cool!!!
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Chuck Glider for younger students (plans included)