Here we go!

We started by building the horizontal stabilizer. Since we already had a box-stock Senior, we decided to mix this one up a little bit with split elevators and a tailwheel. Dad had a set of plans for the Dynaflight Decathlon that amazingly, were quite close in size to the Senior's originals. Building to the Dynaflight plans would decrease slightly the stab area but greatly increase the control surface. Just what I was looking for. The other side of the coin was that this unit was built much heavier than the one original to the Senior. So, we decided to lighten it a little bit and since I was going with a heavier engine (Magnum .91 4-stroke) a little additional wieght in the back should even out the aircraft quite nicely.

The first photo is the dynamic duo laying out the first peices of the stabilizer.

Photo 2: The first statement from Dad's mouth, "hmm, shoulda brought over my jigsaw!" We managed with a utility knife wearing a saw blade.

Photo 3: Everything was cut long and sanded to fit. Only one peice was over-sanded and discarded.

Photo 4: It wasn't long and I was measuring out and cutting peices.

Photo 5: There was one peice of basswood on the stabilizer and that required four sets of hands to get cut.

Photo 6: It wasn't long and the rough outline of the stab was finished. The Decathlon is much heavier than the Senior so we decided to reduce a little wieght where we could without jepardizing the strength of the stab.

Photo 7: The center brace was much heavier on the original plans but we reduced it to about 3-inches wide. It was about 6 inches.

I'll continue in another post.