Bug HLG

I have a question or two about the plans I have- Is the LE 1/8" dowel a regular dowel material, or is it hard balsa? Has anyone started with a hard square balsa, and shaped it after attaching? If it is regular dowel, I would guess its needed for impact resistance. The leading edge should be a hardwood dowel, preferably birch. It’s nearly impossible to get a balsa dowel this size that will stand any impact and not break. For the best results the birch dowels should be soaked in water for several hours and then bent into shape and pinned in place until they’re dry. I little overbend is helpful to avoid buit-in stresses. On the tail group, the material doesn't look to be specified. Is it 1/16", or 1/20" balsa? If you’re using film covered balsa for the tail surfaces I’d use at least 1/16” balsa. If you can find some 4 to 6# wood 3/32” is even better. I absolutely would love to see the fuse side on the parts pages with the AG37 profile. I have just joined the group here, so if its already in the files, forgive me. I will look in the files section. I didn’t find the AG37 profile on the fuselage sides either. Just use the #3 rib as a pattern for the wing seat on the fuselage. I'm handing out 5 sets of plans to my buddies that fly 4M F3J planes for Xmas. We will see if any are man enough to build the bug! If you can get those ‘diehard’ TD guys to build a Lightning Bug they’ll find themselves having nearly as much fun for a WHOLE lot less money. This will be the fourth Bug I’ve built, although just the first Lightning Bug, with each one a bit better than the last and each more fun than the previous one. Porter [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]