The Curare (old MK kit) is coming along at a reasonable pace (they never go quickly enough). As others have said, MK makes about the best kit I've ever seen - *everything* fits perfectly! I've got the stabs completed, and will be sheeting the wings tomorrow. Fuselage is next, which brings me to the question.

The MK plans show the stab at +1 degree, wing at 0. The engine recommendation is 0-3 degrees down, and 2 degrees right. On my set of MAN plans it shows the wing/stabs at zero-zero, and recommends 2.5 - 3 degrees of right thrust and zero down....

I'll definitely follow the MK suggestion for +1 on the stabs and 0 on the wing, but am wondering about the engine. 0-3 degrees of down is a fairly large margin, and since the engine will be hardmounted (cylinder at 90) on maple rails, I really want to get it right the first time. Right thrust isn't as critical, as I can always adjust there w/ shims under the engine.

I'm using a Jett .90L. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Tim

Since the Tiporare is a modified Curare.... The Tipo uses 2 degrees down thrust and 2 degrees right thrust. Hope this helps.

Impact - thanks for the advice. I'm going to go w/ 2 down, 2 right to start with and see what happens.

Tim

When you say the stab is at +1 degree, I wonder if you mean negative 1 degree. If the leading edge of the stab is raised it is negative incidence - the opposite of wing incidence - since it's like trimming in down elevator. This will tend to push the nose down similar to downthrust. So, the 0 to 3 degrees downthrust sort of makes sense. You would need less downthrust with negative stab incidence. Assuming this is the case with the MK plans.

The plans show the LE of the stab higher than the trailing edge, so yes, it will have the effect of down elevator. However, isn't this "positive" incidence? I've always seen incidence expressed as a position relative to a datum line drawn longitudinally through the fuselage. If the LE of any wing, stab, or front of engine is higher than the TE as compared to this datum line, it's positive; lower at LE is negative.

I prefer to st everything to 0, yeah you have to fight the torque on the ground, but it feels much more neutral in the air (at least to me it does LOL).

This is correct.

I concede that you two are technically correct. I'm talking about pitch and not incidence, sorry. It's just that I come from the FF world and we think of things a bit differently since the entire stab is in effect also the elevator (no seperate control surfaces). When a plane porpoises or stalls in the glide segment of flight it needs "negative" so we shim up the leading edge of the stab. When a plane dives too steeply in the glide it needs "positive" so we shim the trailing edge of the stab. It's sort of like the way older generations refer to electrical current flow. It's technically backwards from the way electrons really flow but they all know what each other means.