Well, I had jury duty today, but the case settled so I got a bit done.

I clamped up the tail, and got it aligned straight with the fuse to mark the longerons for where the tail mounts go.



Plans call for 2 hardwood pieces below the upper longeron, fill between the longerons with balsa, then screw the tail mount pieces down to that. I wasn't too keen on the two wood screws being the only thing holding the tail mount to the fuse, so I cut pieces of 1/2" ply to fit between the longerons. The pieces of 1/4 in hardwood they supplied to fit under the longerons weren't quite long enough to be flush with the sides, so I made ones out of 1/4 ply.



Here are those pieces getting epoxy.



This way the tail mounts will be retained by epoxy to ply... plus the screws.

While I was messing with epoxy, I added the pieces that go under the wing mount plates and extend under the longerons.



Once the epoxy set on the structure to retain the tail mount, I drilled pilot holes and installed the tail mounts... I put the tail back in place to confirm alignment before the epoxy set up, and marked it for screw holes.



Those chisel point drill bits sure make perfect holes.

The fill pieces cut for the sides of the fuse earlier get notched to fit around the ply pieces under the longerons. Once some sheeting goes in ahead and behind the tail mount, the side pieces get glued in.



I then decided to get the firewall drilled. I made a template from a scrap of ply, and drilled holes for the mount bolts, throttle linkage, fuel line, ignition trigger wire, and spark plug wire.



I thought I'd get the landing gear out of the way. Tail wheel is pretty simple. The suspension action of this type isn't the greatest, but I like the way they steer. I also decided to use a brass bushing.



I put in the clips to retain the main gear, and it's rearward support. Not pictured is a 1/8 wire that spans between them. It, and a J hook later get rubber banded together to provide suspension.



I also picked up engine mounting hardware, and some copper high temp sealer. Got the pitts muffler mounted, along with throttle arm extension.



Next up will be finishing the main gear and mounting the wheels, putting the wing on and getting it aligned to drill, blind nut, and tap the wing mount plates, and servo mounts for the throttle and for the tail.

Now that I can mount the tail to the fuse, I'll be able to see if mounting the rudder servo in the tail as I had planned can be done without the servo arm hitting the side of the fuse.