Le Fish slope soarer build

Le Fish is a 60" EPP aerobatic slope soarer. The design, by Steve Lange from California, is Open Source and plans are available form his website www.slopeaerobatics.com. Le Fish was designed to perform Ultrabatics or VTPR (French acronym for aerobatics very close to the ground) 

This kit from Leading Edge Gilders includes wing and fuselage cores, carbon and hardwood spars, pushrods and control horns, balsa ailerons and tail parts. There are no official instructions but heaps of info online. Just search for Le Fish.

The build involved a few new techniques and materials for me: Using gorilla glue (had to use brown because the white stuff is not sold in Australia), covering with "New Stuff" or document laminating plastic, Gold-n-rod pushrods, CA hinges, full flying stab with crazy large throws.

I deviated from the kit by swapping the balsa aierons and tail parts for depron to save weight. My Le Fish ended up 650g flying weight, which puts it between the ultra light and all-rounder builds. Despite being light it is proving to be very tough (and easy to repair). While learning slope aerobatics I crash hard and often.

Here's the build video

Here's my detailed build log with lots of info and photos of every step along the way.