Completing the Airframe

1. If you have left the fuselage top square and sanded flush with the sides, it will now be an easy matter to lay out and cut the slot for the fin in the top of the fuselage. I left the slot short of the aft end of the fuse and cut a corresponding notch in the fin. This is not necessary if you want to just cut the slot all the way to the rear that works too.

2. After fitting the stab in paragraph 2 of this step, I go ahead and hinge the elevators (step 5). It’s much easier to do this before mounting the stab to the fuse.

I also think this is a good time to go ahead and do the wing fillets (step 10) and carve the fuse. The fuselage is just easier to handle without the stab.

When you carve the fuse, don’t carve back end of fuse bottom around sub fin or the very back of the fuse top around the fin. Leaving these areas square for now will help to get everything in the back end true, you can touch up the shape in the back later.

Remember the triangle stock you glued into the corners of the fuse? They mean you can really do a lot of rounding on the fuse. I carve well down into the triangle stock, the sides and top don’t even touch any more. Look at final pictures to see how much rounding is possible.

You can also do lots of shaping to the nose. I carve everything down so the lines flow smoothly from the fuse to the spinner. I had an old damaged spinner which I mounted and sanded down to for a perfect fit.

9. Since I covered the fuselage with MonoKote instead of glassing and painting, I mount the canopy after covering. Whatever you do, do not use CA to glue the canopy, it will fog the plastic.

10. I do the finish sanding later.

All of my control surfaces have hardwood inserts for the control horns because I use Dubro Heavy Duty control horns that bolt through the surface. The rudder already has a hard point built in. In the other surfaces, I drill a 1/2" hole through the surface and epoxy in a piece of 1/2" dowel cut to fit. Then sand flush.

Since this plane usually turns out nose heavy, I build a battery compartment in the tail, just in front of the tip of the sub fin. If you choose to do this, plan out where your pushrods will pass. See the picture of the Tail and Hatch.

While on the subject of pushrods, I prefer a dual pushrod for the elevator but not forked in the back as is described in step 12. I run two separate 4-40 steel pushrods the full length and solder them together just shy of the servo as shown in the interior picture. It’s basically the same thing as the Dual Elevator Pushrod System as shown here http://www.centralhobbies.com/contro...age/deps1.html but made with steel pushrods. There is a good how to link from that page too.

I don’t bother with the “ladder” support. In this plane using the steel 4-40 pushrods, being supported on the two ends is sufficient. Again, this plane usually ends up nose heavy so I don’t worry about the steel pushrods in the tail.

In order to get the pushrod runs very straight, lay them out from bottom and sides with a straight edge to find the exact point where they should pass through the fuse side. Also factor in the angle and determine where the angled hole should start. Then to drill the hole at this steep angle I use a long piece of brass tubing the same size as the outer pushrod tube. Sharpen the inside of the brass tube with a pointed Dremel stone. Chuck the brass tube in a drill and you can cut a beautiful hole at the angle you need through the side. The picture of the Tail and Hatch shows where my pushrods exited.



After completing step 15, I go ahead and remove all the equipment and now I do the final filling and sanding.

Cover using your favorite method.

The CG location on the plans is an excellent starting point.



If you have found these notes useful or have suggested updates, please let me know. I hope you found them helpful.

Dave