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Temporary page update, June 28, 2011 At right is a group photo of several models Dave Fitch has said he's worked on for NARAMs: All-graphite G Superroc that Dave "test flew on an H", that was "built" for NARAM-49. Free Flight and R/C Boost gliders to fly in D B/G at NARAM-50, and the other NARAM-50 models Dave said he was building that never flew at NARAM-50. A super-duper scale model for NARAM-52. In order to score more theoretical vapor points for his model, Dave demanded that HIS input be heard on the Scaleroc group, and progress on a mission scoring guide come to a screeching halt. Because Dave did not attend the meeting of scale fliers and judges at NARAM-51, where the scoring outline was developed which Dave did not approve of (NARAM-51 and 52 were yet more NARAMs Dave said he was going to attend, but he did not). Of course those claimed models were no-shows (and almost surely never-existeds). And pretty much so is Dave almost EVERY year he claims he's going to attend a NARAM (He's claimed almost every year since 2003 that he was going to attend NARAM, he only showed up for NARAM-50 and only flew 1 or 2 events, while the other models he bragged 2 months before to be working on, were curiously absent). I know of nobody on Contestroc who believes Dave ever actually built that G Superroc he claimed he'd built. He had been asked several times by multiple people to produce a photo of it, but he never did. Even though he's a photographer. Some people just do things, and let their work talk for themselves. Others just TALK (and type, and type and type and type) but don't walk the walk. And some also don't pay their bets when they lose, even when the cost would not be one cent, they just choose not to live up to their agreements (If Dave lived up to a bet we made, which he lost and reneged on, then he'd only post ONCE a day on Contestroc). Why post this here? Dave often asks and asks and asks about stuff but he doesn't follow up with any of it. He's not a newbie, he's been in this hobby since the 1970's and has been on Contestroc since 2003. So, he's not going to build a flex-wing with a DT. And yet again despite claims last fall, he's not going to NARAM (surprise!), so he doesn't have any remaining excuse to claim he's going to build any flex-wings, either. If Dave is unhappy with this, he can feel free to post his response on his own rocketry website that he put together, showing his articles, plans, and photos. And now we continue with the actual purpose of this page, Flex-wings:
(vaporware)
Until 1988, Flex-wing Gliders were allowed to be flown in Boost Glide. I first tried them around 1973 or so, and got to be good at them. In 1980, I provided a lot of flex-wing notes to Craig Beyers, who wrote up an article in the December, 1980 issue of the Model Rocketeer (NAR Magazine name at the time). It has a lot of information on how to make flex-wings, as well as the pendulum type of DT that the Bulgarian Team had developed. As well, it showed the "dead Duck" DT I have developed to make a flex-wing fold one wing to dive straight down (more effective and lighter than the pendulum DT). In Summer 1982, I wrote an article for the "Impact" newsletter that Tony Williams and I edited. The focus of that article was for how to build and adjust Flex-wings. Scans of both articles are provided below. I should note that the "sewing" method to secure the plastic is long outmoded. Despite what the 1982 article said, it turned out that contact cement would work well enough to secure the plastic to the spars. I thinned it with some dope thinner. And curl the plastic a bit oversized for the leading edges so that the contact cement could be applied to the front, top, and bottom of the spars, with the plastic wrapped around all three sides. Finally, I never liked mylar for flex-wings. But for the models that Art Rose & I developed for the 1987 WSMC, the canard held to solve pitch trim issues that I ran into when trying mylar, which were not as bad with plastic. However, that canard design was only really worth if due to how complex those models were (essentially the flexie version of flop-wing gliders).
Bob Ferrante at right
110° DT'ed Flexie
1980 M.R. Article Page 1 
1980 M.R. Article Page 2 
1980 M.R. Article Page 3
1982 Impact Article Page 1 
1982 Impact Article Page 2 & 3 
Tautness & Billow adjustment
Flying D/E B/G at the 1980 WSMC 
1987 WSMC Canard Flop-Spar design
flown in D Flex-Wing at NARAM-34 (1992) 
Gliding but half of canard did not open
The whole 48" span glider fit into 15" of BT-20.
1975 or 1976 Flex-wing Rocket Gliders