It's been so long since I've flown mine I don't remember. Gotta fix that engine mount.

Well all of this talk of this great plane got me excited. I have repaired the damage and while doing so I noticed something that I had forgotten. The way the stab is mounted on the fuse dose not require any extra lumber. They cut a slot in the sides and the stab slides in. My post regarding light ply insufficiency's does not apply in this case due to the stab being "captured" in the fuse. All my opinions, take them as you want.

that's why I said in my first post about the stab that it was not really necessary to reinforce it, by the way some tri stocks it's never bad.

aniway be sure that your elevators will be in hundreds of pieces before your stab suffer any damage

Mine came unglued, I guess due to the high G force put on it during blenders and walls. I glued it back today and added some tri-stock. I also finished making the mods on my tail on my newer laser. I replaced the elevators with solid elevators, I also put in some kevlar flying wires, so now this laser is exactly the same as my other one.

what can i use for a fuel proofer on the firewall and motor mount.
I was talking to my friend that works in my lhs how much epoxy resin costs, it seems to be quite expensive for what it is. Any other altrnatives?

I always use 30 min. epoxy (its not all that expensive). What I do is mix 30 min. epoxy with some alcohol and paint it on.

by reading your previous post, it looks like you didn't buy your epoxy yet, what did you use to glue your firewall, and your landing gear mounting plates?

I also use 30 min epoxy thined with alcool for fuelproofing job, I think that's the universal fuelproofing mixture

I use Flair Spectrum Fuel proofer. Far easier and cheaper than mixing up your own from expoxy. I also use the disposable epoxy brushes as it is far easier than trying to clean them

I used araldite to glue the firewall and mount. As for fuel proofing i went for tuffcoat(?)

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE re-enforce your horizontal. I was flying on of my lasers today (the one without the re-enforcment) at 1/3 throttle in straight and level flight and I lost my horizontal and my elevators in one quick flutter of death. The wood that is included in the kit for the horizontal is of a very poor grade and will break under stress (Or no stress like mine did). When the horizontal blew off it was a wild ride for nearly 2 min. The aircraft nosed down then up then down the up then a few loops. I played with the trottle and managed to somewhat roll the airplane on its side and fly it in some what of a knife edge to the ground and I rolled out within the last few feet for an inverted landing. The only damage from the crash was a broke rudder and a scratched cowl. I have called hobbico (thats who handels the plane in the United States) and got no where with them. The guy says "hmmm...well we really havent had a problem with horizontals blowing off, call back tommarrow to talk to our R&D department". If I were you I would use some carbon fiber on the horizontal as well as kevlar flying wires. My other lasers that have the kevlar havent had a problem. I really feel that this is due to piss poor balsa included for the horizontal and the elevators (which I had replaced on the elevators).

woops, seems my laser airframe won an upgrade........

sorry for your damages and thanks for info

laser factory is 30 minuts drive from my home, I'll go to talk with them to know if they are aware of the prob

so should i make the entire elevator assembly solid?
what are kevlar flying wires? Never heard of them or seen them before. Could i use glass fibre tape to do some reinforcement? And where could i put it if i can use it?

I have the plan in front of me and I am thinking

does anyone have a pic of their strengthened elevator so i can get a good idea of what i should do

it's one am here I am going to sleep and I am sure that I will see in my nightmare my nice laser tail assembly explode in flight !!
thanks a lot southern_touch9

My first intention after the crash was to sell my laser but now that I have calmed down and composed myself I have come to the conclusion of how I plan to rebuild the horizontal. I am going to buy some higher quality wood and rebuild it exactly to the plans size with one exception. I am going to stick build the horizontal with wood that is 1/8 thinner than the plan calls for. I am then going to sheet the built up piece with 1/16 balsa on top and bottom. I am also going to add gussets to EVERY SINGLE CORNER in the built up part and top that off with kevlar flying wires. (FYI: Kevlar is a very strong material that resembles some kind of high quality thread. When braided around its self and glued it become super strong and its weight is near 0 ozs.) I thing the fiberglass tape would be a good idea too but I dont have any of that in my shop. I have to jump on the laser in a hurry b/c my 33% sukhoi is supposed to arrive either tommarrow or saturday, until the laser is fixed I suppose I will fly my spare laser3D with a .46 on it or practice more IMAC with my giant stinger. All the rest of my planes are in need of some major repair.

the part of the elevator that fits into the fuselage is now 1 solid piece and i have put tri stock on the main parts of the elevator.

I will also rebuild a stab, exactly as paer plan except the leading edges will also be 6*6 spruce

what way did you mount the front wheels. there seems to be a lot of length of wire that the wheel goes on to. Did you have to put some sort of spacer between the side of the wheel closer to the fuselage and the outer part of the wire? Also how many screws do you use to hold the plastic bits to the control surfaces?

As far as the wheels goes I used two wheel collars per each tire. One mounted on the inside then the wheel and then the other collar (leave a space between here enough so the wheel can move freely.
The plastic bits I am going to assume is the Control horns. I used whatever came with the kit on this. If there are two holes use two if there is four use four. I did find that the kit provided most hardware needed but either I was missing a few screws or dropped them among the mess in the room I was building in.
Also, when you mount your landing gear the instructions call for you to angle in some screws and let the head of the screw apply pressure to the wire gear. I dont like doing this, so I replaced it with a plastic wire gear mount set ( I dont really know what you call it).

The little nylon straps? That's what mine's got, too.

I also used nylon straps on the gear, and I used the provided screws to bolt the control horns, in my kit there was some hardware missing to complete the pull pull system

they dont really seem to include as many screws as are needed. I've plenty of other screws that will do the job though. Where the hinges shown on the plan and the instructions the same as you got with the kit? How far should i put these in or how much of a gap should i leave ie. between wing and aileron?

I put 3 on each elevator, 3 or 4 on the rudder cant remember and 4 or 5 on each wing. There should be a very small gap between the control surface and the surface you mount it to. You want to get the smallest gap while allowing max. deflection. I would also suggest pinining the hinges in as a safety measure. I usually drill a small hole through where the hinge is and glue a tooth pick through the hole. It looks kinda ugly but you wont have hinges coming off in air (which sucks).

im at the stage where i'm covering. I would love to meet the person that invented these plastic shrinking covers and PUNCH him!!

I cant seem to be able to make a good job of it even along the bottom of the fuselage the solarfilm just ripples even though the iron is at the correct temperatures.