On a sport model I would not be that concerned, but I want to get everything straight on my Kaos. In the past I either eyeball, or if the wing is in a convenient position to the stab I attach the incendence meter and measure from that. I think the distance of the stab to wing is too far for that. I considered simply laying it down flat on the garage floor and measure each wingtip to each stab tip so that they are equal to the wing tip and glue. But the garage floor is not straight. How do you guys do it?

As it's much more important the stab is aligned properly with the wing than the fuselage, just looking down the length of the plane and sighting the stab edge with the wing edge is sufficient. You'd be amazed how accurate the eye can be in aligning two straight lines; or, indeed, judging concentric lines in a circle.

-David C.

A method I have used is to make a quick and dirty cradle out of scrap foam that holds the wing at the correct incidence and the wing tips equal height above a flat surface. You can use your incidence meter and carve away the foam cradle until the wing is properly positioned. Then just use the meter to align the stab in relation to the wing. This method takes the fuselage out of the equation.

It can also be done using a cardboard box instead of foam. Just cut cradles in the sides of the box to support the wing. You can lay a long stick from wing tip to tip to get the wing level, cutting away the cardboard to adjust the wing. It doesn't matter if the floor is level or not, just as long as the box doesn't rock around.

Here's how I do it. George Hill explained this method to me years ago.
First, invite a friend over to help and both have a beer! I use four equal length blocks of wood to block up the wing tips and stab tips on a flat surface with the fuselage suspended above the surface. This makes sure the wing & stab are level. (I've got a marble slab on a bench to do this on) Use some sand bags or something to weight fuselage enough to hold everything in place. Then use strings to get wing tips to stab tips aligned, stab tips to fuselage aligned and make sure stab is square with everything. Drink another beer. Then with incident meters on wing and stab, shim stab at proper angle. Drink another beer while looking everything over to make sure it looks right. Watch tv for a while thinking about the stab and drinking another beer. Glue in place before one of you decides it wrong. Celebrate with another beer.

Well I have done that, but considering putting some floor leveling compound on the floor. Laying the plane upside down on the floor, making sure each wing tip is the same height from the floor, and the same distance to each wing to stab tip, and gluing.

Actually, there are about as many ways to do this as builders. You just need something to hold everything in place as you get them aligned.

We'll assume that the components; fuselage, wing, stabilizer, and vertical fin are all build straight and true.

A cradle to hold the wing dead-level is a must. Then align the fuselage to the wing. Check, check, check. Then clamp it in place and put in your hold-downs. Now align the horizontal stabilizer to the wing and fuselage. Use long sticks, string, a level, a square....whatever you need to get it right. Glue it into place. Do the same with the vertical fin.

You can do these in any order. If you have straight components, then careful measuring and alignment will always give you a true model.

We prefer to do the wing first, and then the tail. We find it easier to block the wing at its suggested incidence angle and then adjust the stabilizer to the proper relationship.