The instructions for the Ultra Stick say to just remove the covering from the rear part of the vertical stabilizer and epoxy it into the pre-cut slot on the fuse. Is this enough surface area to hold the vstab securely, or should I also remove the covering on the fuse that would fall under the rest of the length of the vstab??? Also, with the vstab in the precut notch it looks like it angles toward the right a bit, not true center.

Anyone who has built one of these have any input? Or am I just being paranoid about this build?

Yes you want wood to wood. And want it centered, there should be enough slop for you to get it centered.

primalchrome

I just put one togeather for a friend of mine. I also have the sixty size ultra stick which I have been flying for about eight months now.
I do alot of snap maneuvers with mine and have never had any problems with the tail or anything else for that matter.
But as the other guy said cut all covering away without scoring the wood so that you have wood to wood contact. Also I drill a few small holes into the wood on the underside of the fin/stab so that the epoxy goes deeper into the wood for extra strength.
And you are right about the vertical stab not being right at 90 degree's. You will need to cut or sand the socket that the stablizer goes into and use a tringle to set stablizer into place while epoxy dries.
Also if you have not mounted your Horzontal Stablizer into place yet. Use a drill bit to make small holes in the fuselage in the mounting area before you epoxy it into place, It will give it much more holding power than just epoxy on the surface of the wood.
Good luck, They fly Great!!

I went ahead and stripped the covering for the remainder of the stab/fuse join and epoxied it last night. Everything looks ok, and it feels very stable this morning. Thanks for the input, guys. On my next build I'll try drilling a few holes....just a bit too late on this one.

Now I have to drill and put on some new blind nuts for the nylon motor mount. Ugh.