Well, now that I'm over the creeping crud, the holidays, making the control horn arrangement for the elevator, and practicing glassing on the tail surfaces, I'm finally back to building. And, as usual, I have a couple questions.

- Reviewing all the images in the build thread, it looks like the two bottom pieces towards the nose must be made removable to access the fuel tank, wing bolts, etc. And also the servos, since, at least as designed, that long top is glued on. Has anyone thought about cutting that long top deck and making part of it removable?

- Following the directions to pinch the tail together so it was the same width as shown on the plans (7/8-inch), the tail is wider than the rudder post and wider than the vertical stab. Based on the images in this thread, it *looks* as though the width of the tail from the trailing edge of the stab to the rudder post equals the width of the rudder post, and the width of the vertical stab. (That is, there does not appear to be a ledge where the vertical stab meets the fuse. In the images below, you can see that the width of the tail is greater than the width of the stab and rudder post.) Before I glue in any of the bottom planking, I need to know if I have to cut the tail apart (again) and make it much more narrow.



- The images in the thread seem to show that the sides of the long top deck are the same width as the sides of the fuse. I've included an image that shows that this is not the case with my build, even though the width of the fuse is pretty much governed by the bulkheads. Unless told otherwise, I'm just going to live with it and sand away.



- The very aft top block that fits against the horizontal stab and beneath the vertical stab is 3/4-inch thick. The gap beneath the vertical stab and the fuse is a hair less than 1/2-inch. This looks like a heck of a step between the middle top block and the aft top block that will need to be contoured to match. Is this what other builders had to work with or do I need to build up the base of the vertical stab to create a larger gap?





- There's quite an overhang to the top block at the nose. I'm assuming it's just to provide a fudge factor.



Many thanks (and Happy New Year!),
Richard