Centon Tow Line Glider – By David Butler
The Centon is a 790mm (31”) Free Flight Tow Line Glider
 Click on any image to enlarge

Kit contains:
Pre-Printed Diecut parts, Pre-shaped Fuselage Nose Section, Fullsize Building Plan, Tissue Covering Material.

Construction:
Glue the pre-shaped nose section to the fuselage stick

Give the nose and fuselage stick a bit of aerodynamic shape, as much as you want to – the more aerodynamic, the better it will fly. Do not shape the rear end of the fuselage stick where the fin & tail plane are to be fitted.

Mark the centre of the tail plane so it can be centred on the fuselage stick. Glue tail plane to fuselage.

Glue the Fin to the Fuselage, use a square to ensure it is vertical.

Fit the wing dowels to the nose of the fuselage, glue in place.

Mark the centre of the wing platform and glue on top of the fuselage between the wing dowels.

Lay the leading & trailing edges over the plan, I used the plastic bag that the kitset came in on top of the plan to stop the parts from sticking onto the plan. Pin the parts in place, cut the leading edge and trailing edges roughly to length. Fit the trailing edge with the sawn side upwards.

Fit the Wing ribs, double check their location on the plan before gluing them in place, use the dihedral template to set the angle of both the outside ribs W1 & W3.

Fit the wing spar and glue in place, when the glue has dried, remove from plan and sand the leading edge, wing spar and trailing edges to the angle of the end ribs.

Assemble the wing tip using the off-cuts from the leading edge, spar and trailing edge. Remember to angle W3 with the dihedral guide, but W6 is positioned vertical for the wingtip.

Note W3 is not attached to the leading edge, this allows the dihedral brace to be fitted. Assemble the right wing panels. Assembled right wing tip shown.

Wing Panels ready to be joined, note the dihedral brace fitted to one wing half and W3 not glued to the leading edge of the other wing half. Shape the trailing edge at the wingtips as shown on the plan. Wingtip blocks added.

Fuselage with wing platform and wing fillets fitted.

Fit the 1.5mm leading edge sheeting to the wingtips and centre sections of the wings. Sand the leading edge sheeting to meet with the leading edge smoothly, also sand down to meet the wing spar, and shape into the wingtips.

Sand the wing panels so they fit together at the dihedral angels. Use a 15mm packer to set the angle of the centre sections of the wing, 55mm for the wing tips.

Join the centre sections of the wing together with a 30mm packer under one end or 15mm under each end. Sand the angle on the ends of the wingtips using a 55mm packer under the end of the wings.  Fit the wingtip sections to the wing.

Fit the diecut centre section sheeting panels

Give the entire model a light sand with 100 or 120 grit sandpaper to prepare the wing for tissue covering.

Tissue Covering
We all have different ways of applying tissue covering, this is how we suggest to do it.

The model can now be painted, but remember he more paint put on the model the heavier it will get. Keep the model as light as possible, a light model will always fly better than a heavy one.

Use a couple of rubber bands to hold the wing in position

The Finished model, ready for a test flight. Add some Bli-Tac or plastercine to the nose of the model to make it balance on the wingspar.

Give the model a gentle throw into the wind, if it climbs steeply, add some more weight to the nose. If it dives steeply, remove some weight from the nose.