Make it narrower, and round off the bottom corners. It looks so square compared to your rounded fuselage profile. Carve a one of foam plug in place of the built up balsa structure. If you like the shape, glass over it and then remove the foam.

Maybe just make it a fin and only have the profile of it, with no significant thickness? It would eliminate the blockiness it has at the moment and make the front end sleeker, while keeping the side area for knife edge.


Mark

I think the plan was to put the pipe inside. I like the looks of the pipe out in the open and slung under the wing.

I think it can be made to work - aesthetically and functionally - if you give it a trapezoid cross section and round off the corners.

Dave, I think thats what I will do, I was thinking the same thing. I cut the one I have down by 3/4 of an inch and it does look a lot better. I will sand it to shape and see what I think. I may just end up building another one latter on. I will post some pics of it latter on.

Isn’t it great to get all this advice! Don’t forget that the 60 size pipe will be at least 1.6� thick.

8178,

When I cut it down I left about 1/4 " clearance for the pipe. I mounted the engine and pipe on the fuse and then cut down the belly pan, I think it looks a lot better, but I am not 100% happy with it. I am going to try one more thing with this one, if it doesn't work out, I will scrap this belly pan and build another with the trapezoid shape to it.

Anyway, the rest of the bird is done and ready for final sanding and covering.

Sometimes the color scheme can help. You could cover the area with black MonoKote and the fuselage in another color.

I have lots of dark red , I was going to try.

I decided to redo the belly pan last night. I just couldn't make myself like the first one I did. Tell me what you think. I included one picture with both belly pans for a side by side comparison.

I think you should save some weight and for maintenance leave the pipe uncovered. It's your build though.

May we see a side view with the bottom cover removed please?

8178,

I think in post #17 there is a pretty good view without the belly pan... it kinda reminds me of a Brushfire.

I will post the pic when I get everything back together, I have the bird disasembled to start the covering proccess. Here is the scheme I think I will go with.

I like it. Simple but colourful (Canadian spelling eh!).

It should be easy to see in the air. LOL

I like the new tunnel a lot better. Will you cut it a the LE of the wing and glue the back half onto the wing?

No the whole thing will be removable to make removsl of the wing and pipe easier.

The fuse is just about done, I just need to do the black on the canopy.

Looks good!

Ron

I thought you were going to paint this plane, but the monokote looks great too! Quickly got this plane covered. Looks great.

I used ultra cote on this bird. I view it as a prototype, so I wanted the least amount of work to get it done. Bot was I wrong, Ultra cote is complete garbage, and I will never use it again.

On the bright side, I got her finished and I got the maiden flight in today.
I actually got in three flights.

All I can say is wow, with the piped ST 91 it is a real beast. It tracks straight and true, Vertical is unlimited and out of sight. No roll coupling with the rudder just as I intended. I can knife edge from one end of the field to the other. If I dial in a little more rudder throw I might attempt a knife edge loop. I am very happy with the flight performance so far.

I might build another one and paint it. LOL

Although I am not happy with the covering , I am very happy with the performance.

Great news!

I was pretty excited by it. LOL

Congradulations, one month from the start of this thread to the flight. Wow! What was the problem with the ultra cote?