Yes, the opening for the stab MUST hold the stab in the proper position before you glue it in place.

The opening for the horizontal stab (or the section of the fuselage it sits on ) will most likely need small shims to get the horizontal stab level.

FWIW - I use flat wood toothpicks to shim with. I put a THIN coat of vasoline on the covering of the stab, then insert the toothpicks as needed to get the horizontal stab in position. At this point I put some thin CA on the joint between the toothpicks and the fuselage to hold the toothpicks in place. The vasoline prevents the CA from adhering to the covering.

After the shims are tacked in place I remove the stab and clean the vasoline off. I also go over the part of the toothpicks that will join with the horizontal stab and the rest of the opening with some alcohol on a q-tip to remove any vasoline that is on them. Then I permanently CA he shims in place. Now the horizontal stab can be put back in with epoxy.

The other option is to hold the stab in place with some blocks underneath the low side of the stab to make it line up properly. The down side to this is you now have a gap between the horizontal stab and the fuselage. This gap, besides looking like crap, is not going to provide a strong joint.


Once you have the horizontal stab installed correctly and everything is dry, installing the vertical stab is easy.