Thanks, Flyboy76! Cool way to spend time with your dad.

That just made this thread worth doing - Glad it will help a bit with your build!

One item that I wanted to get an answer on and haven't gotten a reply is the pre-cut dihedral guage:



The dihedreal guage side is cut with a curve which messed up the angle of the W1 rib where the shorter end of the rib was less angled than the taller part of the rib so the W1 ribs were not totally flush against each other when joined. I am thinking this guage shoud be completely flat on that edge. Any input from the board elders?

Some food for thought so far...

Based on the tips recieved from message board members in this thread (special thanks to Bruce and Ken), other threads regarding building on this board and my observations/mistakes/"DOH!s"/etc., consider the following when building this kit...

- For gluing the main wing joint, use epoxy NOT CA - this includes the MADBs as well as the actual faces of rib 1 on each wing - use epoxy to mount the stabilizer as well as the fin

- For glassing the wing joint - use wider fiberglass vs the 1 inch strip that comes with the kit, more like 3 to 4 inches wide - 3/4 oz?

- During fuselage assembly, dope (fuel proof) the fuel tank area _before_ adding the tank floor or the windshield and also paint both sides of the tank floor and underside of windshield before installing.

- Add pushrod supports to F3 & F4 to prevent flex in pushrods. Flex in those plastic pushrods can cause a loss of effective control of control surfaces on the rear end... imagine not being able to effectively use your elevator in a fast dive. Using carbon fiber rods will go a step further to prevent flex.

- Paint any dark areas on the surfaces being covered or sand off markings before covering as it will show through on any lighter color covering

- Pickup more than a single box of T-pins - you'll use them - I wish I would have had 80 on hand vs the pack of 40 I used

- Wax paper and wood glue for most of the build made for an easier build regarding repositioning of parts as well as taking the parts off the wax paper and clean-up and less killed brain cells from that CA glue. Blech.

- Any surface features not sanded down/filled _will_ show through the covering, even rough grain - sand and sand again to assure a smooth finish. X minutes of extra sanding now will be worth it if you have this plane for a while

- Be careful with the iron pressure on edges when applying covering to not make indentions into the balsa.

- Denatured alcohol works great to clean up any epoxy on the covering. THink I need to use CA debonder to get the CA smears off the covering.

That's it so far.

somegeek