Hi Putting up a photo of the copeland wakefield I built a few years agao as a bit of a test.

Model flew right of the board and still looks great in the air. Fuselage is constructed from  stringers glued to wound balsa formers over removable card board formers. The formers are threaded on a dowel on a stand. When all the stringers are glued in place the dowel plus the cardboard formers are taken out. This leaves you with a strong hollow fuselage structure. Everything plugs into everything else so accurate construction is called for. But the plan is spot on.

A very beautiful model indeed and looks well built.
I have seen a couple of them and as yours does, they fly well.

Looks fabulous; what does it weigh as a matter of interest?

One of the Beales chappies (I can't remember which one) did  rather well with a Flying Minutes wake and of course John (call me tailless) Pool had a Bell streamliner which also looked a proper job and flew superbly.

Nice to see these being built instead of yet another Korda

Best of luck with the flights

Papa

Wow, you did an amazing job on a beautiful model, Algy.  One of those is on my long-tern to-do list.  Since you just finished one up I have a question for you, except for the sheet formers (which can be canged) is this reasonably close to the real deal?
http://www.theplanpage.com/Months/2305/champ_files/champ.pdf

-Tim

HI, Many thanks for the interest shown in my Copeland's Wakefield . In answer to the questions raised the finished "ready to fly" weight with rubber moter is given on the plan as 8.50 oz. Did not weigh mine but it would be about that. Rubber moter listed is 12 strands of quarter inch rubber 47 inches long. I flew mine on two strands less of the old grey  FAI rubber  but it still performs well. Tim I had a look at the Champion plan. It appears to be identical except for the fuselage cross section. The Copeland I built has a circular cross section with the cardboard  formers easily cut out with a circle cutter . I used an "Olfa"  The Champion is oval in cross section hence a different construction method. Feel the wound laminated formers may be stronger.

Yep the DT setup is a bit of a problem. A parachute stored in an under fuselage compartment is attached to the rear with a cord. It deploys well each time the fuse is lite. But it causes the model to come down in a steep spiral . I stopped using it when I broke the leading edge of one of the wings.
There may be a way to make it work in a more gentle fashion but I could not work it out. So go ahead build one. It is treat in flight. Slow and graceful with a deceptive climb.