J&H One Sheet Glider User manual

J&H Aerospace
One Sheet Glider
By
www.jhaerospace.com
The Budget Beginner’s Free Flight Glider
Great for school groups, STEM programs, children,
and anyone interested in the fine art of free flight soaring

One Sheet Glider
Building Instructions
Congratulations on your purchase of the One Sheet Glider catapult glider! You are about to build an easy to fly
glider capable of long flights in calm air. Please watch the One Sheet Glider build video at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msrLJogxusQ to complete your model beginning construction
1. Parts list
Before beginning construction, please verify that your kit contains all of the necessary parts listed below. Please be
aware that some of the laser cut parts may have separated from their carrier sheet, so you should ensure that all
of those parts are present and undamaged.
1. Parts Sheet, 1/16” balsa
2. Catapult Handle (pine dowel, 6” long)
3. Nose weight (modeling clay)
4. Catapult rubber (1/8” Tan Supersport, 36” long)
J&H Aerospace

Reduced size 3-view:

Before beginning construction, be sure to acquire the materials and tools necessary to complete your
model. You will need glue suitable for bonding wood, such as cyanoacrylate (super glue, or CA), white
glue, wood glue, or Duco cement. Protect your work surface using a sheet of parchment paper or wax
paper. For cutting the wood parts apart, a SHARP single edge or double edge razorblade is needed. A
sanding block and CA accelerator (if using CA glue) will be helpful.
It is not necessary to sand the parts of the One Sheet Glider in order to obtain a flyable model airplane,
however your model will fly much better if you take the time to properly sand the flying surfaces. Proper
sanding results in higher launches and improved glide performance. In addition, a well sanded model is
easier to adjust for proper flight.
Humidity is the enemy of a consistent flying glider. Changes in the moisture in the atmosphere causes
the water content of the balsa wood to change, resulting in warped flying surfaces which can make your
model unflyable. One method to protect against these warps without adding so much weight as to make
the model fly poorly is to lightly varnish the entire model with a spar varnish. The brand that has given
us the best results is Minwax Helman’s Spar Varnish. It can be wiped onto the model with a paper towel,
and any excess quickly wiped away. The goal is not to get a glossy finish, but rather to get a light coating
to soak into all surfaces of the glider. The varnish will take about 12 hours to dry, after which the entire
model should be very lightly sanded with 300-600 grit sandpaper.
Many fliers want a beautiful coat of paint on their gliders so they look eye catching. Warning: a thorough
coat of paint will make your One Sheet Glider too heavy to fly! If you are concerned about seeing your
model in the grass after it has flown, a very light coat of paint may help. If you seal your model with
varnish as described above, you can add a very thin coat of spray paint after sanding the model. Hold
the spray can 10-15 inches from your model and give light passes of paint with a sweeping motion. Only
add enough paint to your model to get a hint of color. The wood grain should still be clearly visible
through the paint. If you paint the model in this manner, you will add only a fraction of a gram of
weight, so your model’s flight performance will not be degraded. Any more paint than this can render
the model completely unflyable, so avoid using excess amounts of paint.

Use a razor blade to free the fuselage parts on your parts sheet as shown. Only remove the fuselage
sides for the moment. You should be able to just cut the little retaining tabs, however you should check
for any areas where the laser may not have fully cut through the wood. Use gentle strokes to cut
through the wood rather than forcing the razor through with a single pass.

Coat one side of on of the fuselage parts with glue as shown along its entire length.
Now stack the fuselage sides together as shown, making sure they are aligned as exactly as possible. If
they are not correctly aligned, the rest of the model will not build correctly and may not fly well.

Weigh the fuselage down with something heavy along its entire length on a clean, flat surface while the
glue hardens. This step is important to ensure that the finished fuselage is as straight as possible.
Use sandpaper to smooth any rough edges off of your fuselage. Do not round off any of the edges at this
time as this well cause problems in mounting the flying surfaces and generally weaken the fuselage.

Cut the wing free from the parts sheet and sand any rough edges off.

For best performance, use a sanding block and/or a razor plane to bevel the wing trailing edge and
round the leading edge. You can also taper the wingtips to lighten the model and get a better airfoil.

Flip the wing upside down and lightly score it between the perforations in preparation for breaking the
wingtips to set the dihedral.
Rest the wing on the edge of a table, aligned with the perforations as shown. If you have airfoiled the
wing, the wing must be upside down for this step.

Crack the wing as shown to set the initial dihedral.
Locate and remove the triangular piece on the parts sheet as shown. This part will serve as both a
dihedral gage and a finger rest for hand launching.

Weigh the wing down with something heavy and slide the dihedral gage in as shown. Make sure it is slid
in such that the wingtip has roughly 30 degrees dihedral. If you slide it in sideways, you’ll get about 60
degrees dihedral which is inefficient.

Add glue to the top of the dihedral joint and allow it to harden.
Repeat the cracking, dihedral gage, and gluing steps again for the other wingtip as shown. Pay close
attention to ensure that the dihedral is in the correct direction.

Once the glue has hardened on the second wingtip, flip the wing over and add glue to the underside of
the dihedral breaks and allow it to harden as well.
Do not throw the dihedral gage away! You will need it later.
Your wing is now finished.

Cut out the horizontal stab. Sand as desired to get tapered edges for best streamlining.

Add glue to the stab slot on the back of the fuselage as shown. This slot is on the bottom of the fuselage,
so make sure that if you have sanded the stab to an airfoil that you orient the stab correctly. Failure to
do so will result in uncontrollable looping on launch that likely cannot be cured.
With the stab upright on your work surface, press the fuselage down onto it, aligning it with the keying
slots as shown. Note that the catapult hook on the front of the fuselage hangs down somewhat, so you
will have to position the fuselage/stab assembly so that the nose hangs off the side of the table.

Remove the vertical tail from the parts sheet. Sand to a symmetrical cross section.
Add glue bottom of the fin on the side shown.

Attach the fin to the side of the fuselage above the horizontal stab as shown.

Locate the wing slot atop the fuselage and run a bead of glue on it as shown.
Place the wing atop the fuselage, locking it into the keying slots as shown. You will need to prop of the
wing so that it remains level while the glue hardens.