JASCO Thermic 36 all-balsa free flight glider

This project has been kicking around the shop for 3 years and I finally got the urge to carve that huge plank into a wing. The plans don't say anything about hollowing out the fuselage pod, but I sure wish I had. I got nervous about my wood selection for the tailboom so a tapered carbon fiber tube was imbedded down its length.
9.35 grams of solder was screwed to the nose to balance, so I need to try and lighten the tail...somehow.

[kenkingsflyingmachines]

I typed"right rudder" when I meant "left rudder".
Over and over

[nopenheimer]

Odd, I built a boxes precut balsa kit by this name in 4th grade in 80s. Rib and spar wing with doped tissue, built up sheet fuselage, a sheet of thin clear plastic to cut for windscreen of enclosed cockpit, though I think the tail surfaces were from sheet, sanded to have hints of airfoilyishess.

My guess is the plans were earlier. The wing and tail surfaces look similar, though the wing had more of a mostly-straight LE ellipse planform, matching the horizontal stabilizer.

I always loved pod and boom gliders though. I tried building many as a kid but never found the right material (mostly tried to stiffen pushrod tubes via bad CA glue and sewing thread for fiber wraps, using 3 tubes, etc. I only had access to what I could find at the local hobby shop and didn't know enough to solve the stiffness issue without adding way too much weight, but I had fun trying.

[danneumann]

I built this plane when i was about 12 years old. When all finished, I took it out for its maiden flight in my front yard. It flew beautifully and landed on the neighbors grass. The neighbor girl got upset that it landed our of my yard and smashed it all up.