I am putting together a funtana 40. I am going to overpower it with a saito 100 so I thought I should probably do something to strengthen the vertical stabilizer. I know all the common techniques but they all seem to heavy. Any advise on how to construct lightweight functional flying wires would be great.
Willy

Forget the wires, use 1/8 carbon spars instead. Drill small holes where you want them attached, cut them to the correct length and glue them in place with 5 minute epoxy. Much better than wires.

I fly the funtana with an OS 91 surpass II,and used the supplied carbon spars and glued them into place with epoxy.
After many flights I still don't have any problems with it.

Robert

The funtana only comes with spars for the bottom. Should I get more for the rudder or is two enugh.

After tearing out my CF rods a few times, I got the Sullivan tail bracing kit. Comes with kevlar or cable. I used the Kevlar, never had to bother with it since. I just torture the heck out of it. I've been doing tons of parachutes and people just kringe when watching me (they think the wings are going to fold). It handles it just fine and it's FUN. BTW, when I do a prachute, I almost stall it, point it straight down and power is at idle. I do not have any air speed when I enter it. Still it stresses the plane pretty good when I pull full up (10 feet off the deck). Walls seem better with the bracing too. They pull up nice and straight.

After my expoxied CF spar left the a/c in flight I decided to try this. I got a small tube from an old sullivan throttle linkage and some 2-56 pull/pull cable.

Drilled small holes in the vertical and horzintal stabs. put the tube in and cut flush. I then Ran the cable all the way through to the bottom of the fuse. I put adjustable clevis on the two ends and installed a metel brace on the bottom of the fuse. I then pulled the wire taught at the the vertical stab and used thin CA (carefully) on the tube and wire at that point. Then did the same on both place at the horizontal stab. Thus locking the wire taught in place. Then I used the adjustable clevis to get the bottom taught. Works great and havne't had a problem yet (and it lighter). Just be sure you keep your 90 degree angle on everything as your pulling the wire.