The Building of John's Plane

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PROLOGUE

I had considered but decided against buying two different two place trainers before Mark Smith of Tri State Kite Sales offered to supervise me in building an MX II Plus like his own trainer. What I wanted was a plane ready to go as soon as I had completed my BFI which I hope to complete with Mark this summer. I was not looking for "work," but Mark made me realize how much more I would know about the airplane I was flying and how much better prepared I would be to teach students about the plane as well as the sport.

Besides, the idea of starting out with a new plane appealed very strongly to me. Then I began to discover the design improvements in a Mark Smith plane over the Quicksilver kits: the engine is mounted upright below the wing, lowering the thrust line and making the engine readily accessible; I could opt for a qualifier sail which gives a much smoother air flow than the standard sails and add 5 to 10 miles per hour to the top speed. You'll hear more about these later and see the photos to illustrate. In most of them I'll be smiling.

So here you can follow the trials and joys of a retired high school English teacher (yours truly) learning the basic skills of cutting sails and drilling tubing, selecting bolts.

Since the plane I'm building will be very similar to the present trainer that Mark is flying, this shot of his plane will show what the final product will look like. In the right seat is Mark preparing to give some rudder time to Bob Pierpont, who presently flies an MX out of Paoli, IN.