................I was trying to get my vert. stab ready to put the stick up in it. any suggestions? My vert stab seems to be very wavy looking and wanted to know how you shped or filled it with wood? Do you have to put anything else up in it to keep the airfoil shape?..............
Bill,
In addition to the trailing edge piece I installed in the vert. stab to put the hinges into, I made two additional pieces to hold the fin out and to also make it more rigid. If you study the two pics closely, you can see the two pieces runningup into the fin. The first piece goes straight up to the top of the fin. the other piece follows the slant of the leading edge of the stab, and intersects the other vertical piece. This is something that just takes time to fit. I used about 1/2 x 1" balsa sticks for this. After cutting the length of the stick to slightly more than the height of the fin, I drew a centerline on it and just started tapering the thing and fitting it to get it where I had a snug fit. I also used calipers to measure the outside of the fin and sanded the stick accordingly. They should fit snugly into the fin. I then used Probond to install them. That's the stuff in the pic that looks like foam, because that's pretty much what pro bond is. After those set up the fin still had some wobble to it from side to side. I put a plate across the opening where the fin meets the fuselage, and also probonded those in. that made the fin much more rigid than it had been.
You can also use the guide on the plans that was shown for the trailing edge piece to get started with.
Randy