Update 6-05-00:

The project is coming along slowly.

To date, both fuses are built up as far as the truss, the firewall and landing gear plates.
The turtle decks are not in place and neither is the canopy or forward hatch covers.

Saying that, progress has been made on the stab and rudder sections.
The stabs are sheeted and one has been cut out. The next step on it is to add in the hinge assembly.
This should happen this week.

The mods to the stab as far as surface area is concerned was to move the hingeline forward 1" and increase the width of the counter balance from 2.5" to 3.5".

The Turtle decks also need doing.
There is some discussion about how to do them best, i.e. structural rigidity vs light weight.
One way to make them light is to sheet over three formers with a top 1/4sq spar and a left and right 1/4sq spar.
The main problem with this is that the structure is so fragile that even tightening the covering on it is enough to cause dips.
Due to this, it is very likely that we will go with the standard cored foam method, i.e. sheeting over foam and coring the foam to 1/2".

The front hatch cover will get the same treatment.

End....

The goal of this project is to produce two 35% Caps that will go beyond what current kits can do 3D wise, while at the same time, excelling at Pattern type flying. This will be achieved by utilizing extreme lightweight in combination with modified control surfaces and control surface control systems.

The 35% Carden Cap was chosen as the base due to its already exceptional flight performance in standard flight as well as 3D.

In order to make the weight, the fuse of the kit was redesigned to be built as an open truss with as few components as possible.
The basic truss was built up and than a 3/32 ply doubler was added to the front section to handle the wing loads, landing gear loads and engine loads.
While this part was lightened some, it was not extensively as we want the planes to be robust to 3D abuse, i.e. hitting the ground.

The firewall and landing gear mounts are made from 1/4 inch thick Balsa / Carbon Fiber laminate.
This material is extremely strong and very light.
For example, the stock firewall weights 6 3/4 oz, the laminate firewall weights 2 oz.

The foam turtle deck will be cored out as will the front hatch cover.

The wings will be cored using a method called "D Coring".
This is a way of removing the foam from the center of the core where it is not much more then dead weight.

Below are some photos of the project so far and I will add more text and photos when I get a chance....

Branwell