elenasgrumpy

My Feedback: (4)

Yes it is Bubba's day, but he doesn't have any pink planes, pj's or bunny slippers that we know of?[&:]

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Bruce dropped a not too subtle hint the other day that I was behind again getting this thread. Unfortunately Bruce was about as subtle as a 2 by 4 across the forehead!! It's amazing just how quickly you can get behind in a project like this, especially when you have a building board filled with at least one project (I currently have 2 new builds going at the same time!!!). So let's see if I can't get some more of this build documented.

Next up let's go ahead and get our throttle push rod installed. On most kits it's up to the builder to locate where they are going to position the pushrod and it's tubing, but on our LT-40 the mounting holes are already located in both the firewall and former F-2 (picture #1 & #3). If you look at picture #2 you can see how the pushrod tube will run through the fuel tank compartment, running beside the fuel tank itself. I find it easier to put the tubing in place if you remove the foam padding from the compartment so it won't be way of our installation. If you're unsure about the exact position of the pushrod tubing you can refer to you plans to get it's location, but I usually just “eyeball” it. If you look in picture #3 you can see that I leave enough of the tubing so that it can “point” towards our throttle servo (once again, if you haven't glued in your servo tray yet you can temporarily locate it for this step). Once you have the tubing located where you want it you can secure it with a few drops of 5-minute epoxy (medium or thick CA will also work). With our tubing in place let's go ahead and put the actual throttle pushrod in place. Before we do that we can go ahead and put an EZ connector on throttle control horn on the carburetor. I like using the EZ connectors on the throttle because it makes it very easy to do adjustments of our throttle (picture #4). If you look at the position of the pushrod tubing and then the location of the carb you can see that there is a pretty ugly angle to deal with that. If you look at the plans you can see that a couple of quick bends of the pushrod will take care of this problem. I found that the easiest way to get these bends correct was to use the plans as a guide for bending the pushrod. Lay the pushrod on top of the plans and bend the pushrod to match the plans (pictures #5-#8). Now that we have the pushrod bent go ahead and slide it into our tubing starting at the engine in first. With the pushrod in place go ahead and connect it to the EZ connector on the carb control arm (picture #9). If you take a look at picture #10 you can see just how our bends look in place. At the throttle end I also used an EZ connector on the throttle servo (picture #11). Put the pushrod into the EZ connector on the throttle servo (picture #12).

Don't worry about making any adjustments right now. If you remember, I prefer to completely assemble the plane before I balance it. Then I will remove everything to cover the plane, so making adjustments now won't make any difference because we're going to remove everything anyway. All we are doing right now is getting everything in place so that we can check the balance of the plane. I won't elaborate about taking everything off and putting back on later on , but don't worry because I will explain how to make all of the needed adjustments down the road.

I want to take few minutes to talk about the EZ connectors. I know that there are plenty of pilots out there that will disagree with me about this, but I just don't like to use EZ connectors on any critical control surfaces (i.e. Elevator and ailerons). Since an EZ connector has a screw holding the control rod in place it's possible for that screw to come loose which will cause you to lose control of that surface. If that happens to be the elevator or ailerons you can say goodbye to the plane because you won't have control any longer. For those surfaces I prefer Z-bends, L-bends, or solder clevises that won't come loose. But for things like throttle or rudder the EZ connectors are great. If the connector comes loose on the throttle you will lose control of the throttle, but that's not a big deal. It means that you will either have a dead stick to land or your throttle will go full open. If that happens you simply fly around until your plane runs out of fuel and then you land dead stick when the engine dies.


Pictures
1. Predrilled hole in firewall for the throttle pushrod tubing.
2. Remove the foam padding in the fuel tank compartment to install the tubing.
3. The pushrod tubing exits into the body of the fuselage
4. Install an EZ connector on the carb control arm
5. Use the plans as a guide for bending the throttle pushrod
6. Use the plans as a guide for bending the throttle pushrod
7. Use the plans as a guide for bending the throttle pushrod
8. Use the plans as a guide for bending the throttle pushrod
9. Tighten down the EZ connector on the pushrod
10. View of the bends in the throttle pushrod
11. Connect the pushrod to the throttle servo
12. Connect the pushrod to the throttle servo

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Ok, what next? How about we move up to the wing and get the aileron servo installed. Let me take a moment and make a couple of comments about ailerons and aileron servos. In this day and age it is just about the norm for a plane to have dual aileron servos, with one servo controlling each aileron. While this has it's advantages, it doesn't necessarily have to be that way. I have seen many new pilots (and I can't even count how many times I've been asked) think that they “have” to have dual aileron servos. It has only been the last 10 years or so that servos have become cheap enough to put a servo in each wing, so in past times the choice for a single aileron servo was done to save money (and weight). But some of the best flying planes out there were designed for a single aileron servo, three that come to mind right off the bat would be the Ultra Sport 60 (yes, you all know by know this is my favorite!! ), the Great Planes Ultimate 40, and the Ugly Stick. Theses planes could (and still do) fly circles around a lot of modern planes with dual servos. The point that I'm trying to make here is simply to let those new people who have doubts in their minds know that it's fine to have a single aileron servo on their trainers. And a note for the other side of the argument, yes there are a few advantages for having dual servos in a plane. Probably the biggest argument would be that since there are 2 servos they can push bigger ailerons. This really comes into play in 3-D type planes that need huge ailerons to perform like they are designed. There is no way a single servo could drive those 2 huge servos pushing that much air. The other reason I hear for having 2 servos I am a bit skeptical on. Many will tell you that having 2 servos can save your plane if a servo goes out. While this is 100% true, I don't feel that it's a good reason in this argument. In almost 10 years of flying I've never blown an aileron servo yet. If you do proper and regular maintenance on your planes you should be able to tell when a servo is starting to wear, and the servo should be replaced long before it goes bad. In fact, part of my season beginning maintenance routines are to open the servo and inspect the gear train in high stress critical servos, and while I have it open I will clean and lube the gears. If I find damaged gears I will either replace gear train (most major radio manufacturers make rebuilt kits for their servos), and if I can't replace the gears I will mark the servo for use in non-critical controls such as the throttle. So in closing, I hope that you walk away from this little discussion is that while it's great to have dual aileron servos it's not always needed. I promise I'll put away my soap box for now!!

So, let's get on with installing the aileron servo in the wing. We installed the lite ply servo mount when we built the wing. In picture #1 you can see test fitting the servo into the mount. It's been mentioned here concerning exiting the servo wire from the mount. Don't worry about, there is plenty of room on the side of the servo for the wire to exit between the servo and mount. Position the servo in the mount making sure it's sitting square in the mount and mark the screw holes as we have for the servo tray. In picture #2 using a center point locater to mark the location of your screw holes. Go ahead and drill your screw holes (picture #3) and use a screw in each hole to cut threads in the wood (picture #4). After you have threads in each hole use thin CA to harden the wood (picture #5). Place your servo back in the mount and put in the mounting screws (pictures #6 and #7), make sure you don't over tighten the screws when mounting the servos (which we covered earlier in this thread). Pictures #8 and #9 show the servo mounting into the wing.

In my next post I'll be finishing up the aileron installation by installing the control rods for the ailerons.


Pictures
1. Test fit the servo in the mount
2. Mark the location of the holes for you mounting screws
3. Drill each hole as marked
4. Use a mounting screw to create threads into the holes that you drilled
5. Use thin CA to harden the threads that were cut into the wood
6. Replace the servo into the mount
7. Install the mounting screws to secure the servo
8. Mounted aileron servo in wing
9. Mounted aileron servo in wing

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I was hoping to get another post put together tonight, but it's getting late and I need to get packed. I'm leaving in the morning for the [link=http://www.toledoshow.com]Weak Signals[/link] show in Toledo in the morning. I'm planning on doing some work on the build thread while I travel tomorrow as I have a couple of long layovers and one semi-long flight. So hopefully I can get some more posted tomorrow night once I'm in Toledo (after dinner with Minnflyer of course!!!).

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

As I promised yesterday night, I'm on the road to Toledo and I'm sitting at the airport waiting to board my first flight. So it's a good time to sit and work on this thread some more. In the last post we go the aileron servo installed in the wing, so next we're going to work on setting up and installing the hardware for the ailerons.

With the servo installed we now need to get the torque rods setup and installed. The first thing that we need to so it install the install the two connectors on to the threaded portion of the torque rods. Installing them is pretty straight forward in that all you need to do is screw them onto the threaded portion of the rods (pictures #1 and #2). You will need to be a little cautious as you screw these on because they are a soft nylon and it's possible to cross thread them if you try to put them on at an angle as you start to turn them. The manual tells us to screw them on until they are 1/8” from the top of the torque rods (picture #3 and #4). Try to make sure the both connectors are the same distance from the bottom of the rods. Yes, I said the bottom of the rods. The reason for that is because sometimes the actual length of the threaded portion of the rods can be a little different. If you measure from the top of the rod when installing them you can wind up with a little bit different geometry in the throw for these rods, which can cause the ailerons to move a little bit differently from each other. If you make sure that the distance of the actual throw is the same for each rod then both servos will move the same amount as each other. While these kinds of measurements aren't absolutely necessary to fly the plane, taking a few extra minutes to make sure details such as this are correct can save you tons of time if you ever have to troubleshoot problems in the way the plane flies. I sound a bit like my drill sergeant that I had in basic training but the saying “attention to detail” really does pay off in the long run. If you spend the extra time to ensure that your plane is properly set up you will be rewarded with a better flying plane in the long run, and on the other hand if you rush through your setup and miss details such as this you will have a plane that has “quirky” flying habits. In picture #5 you can see the stock connecting rods that come with the LT-40 kit. We'll use these to construct our connecting rods for the ailerons. You'll notice that one end of the rods is already threaded while the other end of the rod is not. We'll use threaded end of the rod to screw on a nylon clevis which will be attached to the connectors we just installed on the aileron torque rods. The other end of the rods isn't threaded which leaves us several options for how we can connect it to the aileron servo. As I said in an earlier post I don't like to use EZ Connectors on a critical control surface such as the ailerons. These leaves us 3 possibilities of connectors which are Z-bends, L-bends, and a solder clevis. Probably the most common would be to put a Z-bend in the rod and connect that to the servo. This type of connection is probably the most used and can be the best all around type to use. The reason for that is because it's fairly easy to make a Z-bend and unless the servo control arm breaks there is no possible way that it can disconnect from the control arm. The next type of connection would be an L-bend. These are still pretty secure, but I don't really like to use them because I feel that it's possible for the nylon retaining clip to come off. I know that it's not likely to happen, but I'm entitled to my demented ramblings occasionally right?? The last type, solder clevis, is the type I do prefer to use and it's what is provided in the hardware of this kit. While solder clevises are the most difficult to install (it does take some practice to get a good solder joint) they are my choice for connecting to the control surfaces. They are easy to install in that you don't have to remove the servo control arm in order to connect them, and there in no chance that they can come off control arm in flight.We're going to use the solder clevises because they are what was provided with this kit.

One thing to note here, whenever you install a clevis on a control surface or a servo you want to make sure you also install a piece of fuel tubing that will go around the clevis once it's installed on the plane. The purpose of this piece of tubing is the keep the clevis closed so that it can't “pop” off the control arm in flight. A good habit to get into is to check the condition of all of the tubing on all of your clevises while you are cleaning your plane after flying it. If you notice that a piece of the tubing has started to rip, tear, or is missing you will want to replace it before you fly again. Once again, it's this kind fo attention to detail that could well save your plane from crashing. I like to use the time that I clean my planes to give them a good going over and check out anything that has happened during that day of flying. If I find anything I will put that plane on the bench and repair the damage before I fly the plane again. I can't even begin to count how many times I've caught things during these inspections that could have caused a crash during my next flight.

Let's move on to setting up our control rods. In pictures #6, #7, and #8 you can see the fuel tubing being cut into two small lengths that we'll use to secure our clevises. You'll only need about a 1/4” or so piece for each clevis. You'll notice that I have cut two pieces of tubing, each control rod will have two pieces of tubing on it since there is a clevis at each end of the rod. Trust me, it's a lot easier if you to put this tubing on now than to try and put it on after you have assembled the control rod. In picture #9 you can see where I have slipped a piece of tubing over the end of each nylon clevis. You don't have to do it this way but it's an easy way to make sure that you don't forget to put them on as you assemble the rod. Picture #10 is of a tool that is made to help screw a clevis onto the rod. It's one of those weird tools that you really don't need, but once you use one it's a tool that you can't live without. As you can see in picture #11 you slip the tool over the end of the clevis in order to turn it as you put the clevis on the control rod. If you don't have this tool there are a couple of pointers that I'm put out here. Before you start screwing on the clevis make sure that you snap the clevis closed before you start to turn it. If you don't you stand a chance of the two arms of the clevis being twisted out of shape or even snapping off. Another tip would be to fold up a piece of paper towel and put it over the clevis as you screw the clevis onto the rod, doing this can help save your fingers and make it a bit easier to screw the clevis on. The instructions tell you to turn the clevis several turns as you put it on, but I prefer to give it a bit more. If you look at picture #12 you can see that I have screwed on the clevis enough so that it's just protruding through the threaded area of the clevis. By doing this you assure yourself that you have enough “room” to be able to turn the clevis in either direction as you adjust your plane, yet still have enough of the threads so that it's still firmly secured.

Since I've run out of picture space again I'll go ahead and wrap up this post and continue in the next post.


Pictures
1. Thread the nylon connectors onto the threaded portion of the torque rods
2. Thread the nylon connectors onto the threaded portion of the torque rods
3. Screw the connectors down approximately 1/8”
4. Installed nylon connectors
5. Pre-threaded connector rods
6. Fuel tubing to be used to secure clevises.
7. Cut approximately 1/4” of tubing for each clevis
8. Two pieces of tubing will be needed for each connecting rod
9. Slipping the tubing onto each clevis will make it easier to install later
10. Tool used to screw and unscrew a clevis. This can turn out to be “must have”
11. Install the nylon clevis onto the threaded portion of each control rod.
12. Thread the clevis until you see threads protruding through the clevis

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Although the steps of installing the aileron servo and setting the connecting rods has taken several posts for me to explain, it really can be done fairly quickly. But as I have said before, take you time and get it right.

What we will doing next is getting the clevis on the other end of the connecting rods. As I said earlier, we will be using solder clevises here. But if you will be using other types of connections the methods for centering the ailerons and marking the rods will stay the same. The first step here is to center the ailerons and secure them so that we know where to mark our rods. Looking at picture #1 you can see that a couple of craft sticks (a.k.a. Popsicle sticks ) and several clamps do a good job of centering the aileron. Doing this will ensure that your ailerons (or other control surfaces) are centered even with the wing. Next attach the clevises to the control arm of the servo. I usually will place them in the furthest hole out (picture #2), but it doesn't really matter as we have plenty of room for adjustments at the other end of the rod. After you have attached the clevises the control arm make sure that the control arm is sitting squarely to the servo body, it should be at a 90° angle to the servo body. The control rods should already be attached to the torque rods. Lift up the rods so that they lay right next to the solder clevises on the servo arm (picture #3). Using a permanent marker you will want to mark on the control rod where the back of the clevis will sit (picture #4), make sure you mark both rods now before you disassemble them to solder on the clevis. Now we know where the back of the clevis will be on the control rod we need to cut the rod to length. You will want to have enough extra rod so that it just extends past the body of the clevis (picture #5). It's easy to forget right now but go ahead and slip the other piece of fuel tubing onto our control rod and slide it all the way down to the other end of the rod (picture #6). Use a piece of sandpaper to “roughen up” the rod (picture #7 and #8) as this gives the solder something to get a little better grip on with, just make sure you don't grind off where you marked the control rod. Secure the rod in a vise, or something else that will securely hold the rod but won't be affected by the heat of the soldering iron.

Making a good solder joint isn't hard, but it may take a little bit of practice to get it right. You may want to practice on a scrap piece of material a few times before you try in on the rod that goes onto the plane. A lot of people seem to get all worked up about having to solder, but trust me it's not all that difficult to do. Just take your time and you'll be fine. First of I do want to apologize that the pictures are a bit fuzzy, I didn't realize that until it was too late to take more pictures, but you'll be able to get the idea of what I am talking about. In order to make a good solder joint we need a few things, we need the material that is being soldered to be clean and free from oils, we need a good solder, and we need a clean and hot soldering iron. In order to have clean material to solder together we need to clean the two surfaces off. To do this we use a material called “flux”. Put a little bit of flux on each surface and when heat it applied to the material it will cause the flux to clean the surfaces (please don't ask me to explain how because I don't know myself). You can pick up a tube of flux at your local Radio Shack, and a tube will last you for years. The easiest way to apply it is to take the lid off of the tube and stick the end of the rod into the tube, then when you slide the clevis on the flux will be on both surfaces. Next we need a good solder. The one type of solder that you want to avoid is the acid core type of solder. The reason for this is because the acid in it can actually eat into your material and cause oxidation to start eating into the rods. You can use silver solder here but it's not needed. Either way you can pick up the solder at Radio Shack too. The last item is the soldering iron. I use a dual setting iron that I picked up at (you guessed it, Radio Shack) that I really like. It's two settings are 25 watts and 40 watts, between the two settings I can solder most things that need to be done for our hobby. Since we're going to soldering to a large rod we'll need to use the higher heat 40 watt range. If you already have a soldering iron that is of lower heat don't worry, you can still use it but it will take a little longer to heat up your surfaces. To ensure that the iron it clean use a damp sponge and wipe the tip of the iron on the sponge when it's hot. After the tip is clean you'll need to “tin” the tip. Fancy term, but very simple to do. Take the solder and apply it to the tip of the soldering iron. This will melt the solder and cover the tip, it should be “shiny” now. You only need just a little bit of solder on the tip to properly tin it. When we start to solder the parts it's very important to remember to heat the parts and let them melt the solder. I can't even begin to count how many times I've seen people try to melt the solder on the iron itself and then hope it “runs” down to the part. This usually doesn't happen. What I actually try to do if possible it apply the solder right at the point where the soldering iron meets the work material. This will let the solder melt and then flow into the work itself. You only need enough solder to fill the work area, if it starts to ball up or is in “blobs” on the work area you have way too much there. The last thing to remember about soldering is that after you have applied the solder that you MUST NOT move or touch the work surface until it cools off. If you do it will disrupt the solder cooling and setting properly and cause a weak joint. One quick and easy way to tell is to look at the actual solder joint. If it's very shiny then you've got a good solder joint and you're good to go, but if the joint has a dull .“greyish” appearance then you have a “cold solder” or bad joint and you need to heat it back up and let it cool properly

Ok, now that we're ready to solder we need to put the control rod in the whatever you plan to hold it with, I prefer to put it into a vice. Don't forget to apply flux to the work area. Then slide the clevis onto the control rod up to the mark that you made on the rod (picture #9). Sorry for the slightly fuzzy picture here (picture #10). I put the tip of the soldering iron so that it touches both the control rod and the clevis itself. You'll see the flux “burn off”, which is actually cleaning the work area. Then touch the solder to the “lip” of the clevis where it meets the control rod. The solder should melt and then flow up underneath the shank of the clevis. When that happens you can remove the heat and the solder from the work area and let it cool down without touching it until it cools. Go ahead and do both control rods. In picture #11 you can see the completed rods installed on the wing.


Pictures
1. Clamping the aileron in it's neutral position.
2. Install the solder clevis on the servo control arm.
3. Make sure the control arm is square with the servo
4. Mark where the end of the clevis will be on the control rod
5. Cut the control rod so that it extends into the clevis
6. Slip the fuel tubing onto the control rod.
7. Roughen up the end of the control rod with sand paper
8. End of the control rod after it's been “roughed up”
9. Secure the control rod in a vise in order to solder the clevis on
10. Solder the clevis onto the control rod
11. Install the control rods onto the aileron servo and the aileron torque rods.

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Once again I'm sitting at an airport with time to kill, so I'll get some more of this written up as I wait. I'm headed home after visiting the Weak Signals show in Toledo yesterday. I've only got two words to say about the show, “HOLY COW!!!!” It was incredible. I've never seen so much RC stuff in one place at one time. I'll be going back next year for sure. If you ever get a chance to attend the show I high recommend going. Not only is it a great place to pick up some great bargains, it's also fantastic for seeing all the new products coming out for the upcoming flying season. There was one that caught my eye that I can guarantee will be in my hanger this year. Top Flight (a.k.a. Hobbico) is coming out with an ARF version of the Beechcraft Staggerwing Biplane. One very gorgeous plane IMHO. The plane will have a fiberglass fuselage and it's sized for a 160 size glow motor. The reps at the booth told me that it's going to cost in the range of $475-$500. I did notice that there was always a huge crowd around it during the show!! [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4138579/tm.htm]Check out RCU's coverage of Weak Signals 2006[/link]

Continuing on with the build let's finish up with the wing now that we have the aileron servo and hardware installed. The last thing to do with the wing will be to get it's mounts installed. We're not going to check that the wing is square with the fuselage at this point, but rather we'll check it after we have the covering installed. This is a little bit different from almost all other planes where the wing will be squared on the fuselage and wing bolts installed to hold the wing on. But since this plane uses rubber bands to secure the wing on there is no fixed point of reference for mounting the wing like there is on most other planes. So what I prefer to do in cases like this after the plane is covered I will determine where the wing should be mounted and then I'll make reference marks so that the wing can be lined up correctly every time we fly.

The wing is held on by rubber bands that are hooked to two dowel rods, one mounted at the leading edge of the wind and one at the trailing edge. We need to go ahead and glue in these rods now. Before gluing them in place make sure that they are centered on the fuselage, with the same amount of the rod extending from the fuselage on both sides (pictures #1 and #2). Once you have the mounting location determined go ahead and glue them in place. Some will tell you that you need to use epoxy to glue these dowels in but I consider that overkill. Wood glue or CA will hold fine here. Pictures #3 and #4 show the dowels in glued in place. As I said above, we'll determine the exact location of the wing after we cover the plane, but for now we will mount it so that it's square with the fuselage. Mark the centerline of the fuselage at both the leading and trailing edges of the wing, and set the wing on the fuselage with the center of the wing aligned with those marks (pictures #5, #6, and #7). Picture #8 shows where we are at on the build so far.

In pictures #9 and #10 I am using rubber bands to hold on the wing while I work. In the pictures I am using only 4 rubber bands to hold on the wing. But I do want to point out that you should never try to fly like that. When you are going to fly you need to make sure that you have 12 good rubber bands holding the wing in place. What I like to do when I mount wing is use 8 rubber bands that are hooked on the front dowel and extended back to the rear dowel on the same side of the fuselage. Make sure that you have the same amount of bands on both sides of the fuselage. And then I like to cross the last bands across the fuse, this should be the 4 remaining bands. By crossing the last bands it will help keep the first rubber bands from coming off of the dowels.

One final note, since these dowels are outside of the fuselage you will need to seal them so that fuel and exhaust reside will not soak into the dowels and weaken them. I used a little bit of thinned epoxy to seal them up.


Pictures
1. Measure the distance of the dowel extending from the side of the fuselage. Ensure that it's the same on both sides.
2. Measure the distance of the dowel extending from the side of the fuselage. Ensure that it's the same on both sides.
3. Rear wing dowel glued in place.
4. Front wing dowel glued in place.
5. For now center the wing on the fuselage
6. For now center the wing on the fuselage
7. For now center the wing on the fuselage
8. Plane “in the bones” is starting to look like an airplane.
9. Temporarily secure the wing with rubber bands to hold it in place as we work
10. Temporarily secure the wing with rubber bands to hold it in place as we work


Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

With the wing ready to go I looked around to see what I have left to do before I put the tail section together. Unless I am missing something the only thing I can find left to do is install the radio switch. Your radio will come with an on/off switch for you to use to turn the receiver on and off. If you look at the switch itself you will see that on one side of the switch there is one wire coming out of the switch but on the other side of the switch there are two wires coming out of the switch. On the side with two wires on it one of those wires will be what you connect to your battery pack, and the other wire will allow you to connect your charger to the battery in order to charge it (it will also allow you to connect a battery tester so you can check the level of your battery while using it. On the other side of the switch that has one wire on it, this wire will connect to you receiver. If you use just the stock equipment you will mount the switch on the side of the fuselage so that the slide of the switch is on the outside of the fuselage, you want to do that in order to turn the plane on and off without having to take the wing off. If you are going to use the stock switch I recommend that when you put the wing on the plane to fly that you take the “extra” wire and hang it outside of the fuselage and then put the wing on the plane. By doing this you will be able to check the charge left in your battery at the field without having to take the wing off, it will also allow you to quick charge your batteries at the field without taking the wing off.

As I said in the beginning of this thread I have tried to use the stock equipment that comes with the plane, but for the mounting of the switch I will use an “add on” part. I am going to use a Du-Bro switch mount. If you look at picture #1 and #2 you can see the switch mount that I used. What the mount does is turn the switch 90° so that the switch is inside the fuselage now and then has a “pull button” that you can use to turn the switch on and off. It also mounts the charging jack into the mount so that it's accessible from the outside of the plane, I particularly like the Du-Bro mounts because the have a small “door” that you can swing closed over the charge jack while the plane is in flight, this keeps fuel and exhaust reside from getting into the fuselage. The mount comes with a template that you can use to mark where you need to cut the hole for the mount (picture #3). Cut out the hole and place the template where you want to mount the switch (picture #4) and trace the cutout onto the side of fuselage (picture #5). When you are getting ready to mark where you want to mount the switch make sure you have taken a few minutes to plan out where you want the switch to be. You will want the switch to mount so that it doesn't interfere with anything on the inside of the fuselage. Picture #6 shows where we have traced for our cutout. There are a lot of different ways to cut this cutout in the side of the fuselage but I prefer to use a rotary tool to make the cutout (picture #7 and #8). I think I have said this before in this thread, but I'll say it again, a rotary tool can be one of your best purchases in this hobby. I find that I am using mine all the time. I don't really want to spend too much time discussing actually installing the switch mount itself because there are several different types of mounts out there, and they are all a bit different in the way that you mount them on the plane. If you follow the instructions that come with the mount itself you should have no troubles at all in mounting the switch mount on the plane (pictures #9, #10, #11, and #12).

Since I've run out of picture space again I'll wrap up this post and in the next post I'll continue on with mounting the switch into the switch mount.

Pictures
1. Switch mount assembly
2. Switch mount assembly
3. Switch mount comes with a template to use to cut the hole in the side of the fuselage
4. Locate where you want the switch mounted on the side of the fuselage.
5. Trace the template onto the side of the fuselage.
6. Outline to use as a guide for cutting your hole
7. A rotary tool is great for cutting things like this
8. Use a rotary tool to make the cutout.
9. Install the switch mount in the holes that we just cut.
10. Install the switch mount in the holes that we just cut.
11. Install the switch mount in the holes that we just cut.
12. Install the switch mount in the holes that we just cut.

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Well now, Toledo is over and and I'm finally catching up from the show. One thing I was doing while I was there was taking pictures for RCU of the show. When all was said and done I shot about 440 pictures of the show. It's taken the better part of a week to upload all of the pictures from the show, but I've finally got most of them done now. So it's time to get back to updating this posts of this build thread.

In my last post we talked about mounting the switch and recharge jack on the side of the plane. We had just cut out our mounting hole, so now let's talk about actually mounting the switch itself into the mount. As I have said before, the procedures may be a little bit different depending on which brand of switch mount you have, but you'll get a pretty good idea of what we are doing here. The first thing we are going to do is install the charge jack into the mount. Please make a note that most of the assembly has to be done with the mount already installed in the plane, but I am doing outside of the plane for better clarity of the steps I'm describing here. The charge jack will mount into a slot on the switch mount and will be held into place with a set screw (picture #1). One thing that I've always had trouble doing was tightening down the set screw and still leaving room around the jack in insert the jack from the charger. I usually over tightened and couldn't insert the charging jack. Refer to pictures #2, #3, and #4 and you can see what I do to take care of this problem. First push the charging jack from the switch all the way through the switch mount, then connect the external charging jack, and then push it back into the switch mount. When it is in position go ahead and tighten down the set screw to secure the jack in place. When it's tightened down remove the external jack and then reconnect it a couple of times to ensure that jack is firmly mounted in the switch mount. Picture #5 shows the completed installation of the charging jack. Next up we will mount the switch into the mount (picture #6). The switch will be held in place by two screws that extend through the mount and into the switch. After that there is a small cradle that will sit down over the switch on/off slide and that is held in place by a pushrod that extends to outside the plane. Picture #7 shows the assembled switch in place. When you have the switch mounted it's very important to make sure that the switch can move freely to the on and off position, and that nothing interferes with that movement. As you slide the switch back and forth you need to make sure you feel the switch “click” into the “on” position. The reason for this is because it's possible to move the switch to where it's not fully “clicked” into the on position, but yet the radio will turn on. What can happen when this happens that when you start flying the plane the vibrations can click it back off causing you to lose control of your plane. Trust me on this one, it's the voice of experience talking here!!! Picture #8 shows the completed and installed switch.

In pictures #9 - #12 please note the location of the receiver and battery. This by no means will be the final location of the radio and battery. It's an educated guess as to where I think they will mount. The reason why I say a guess is because the location of the battery and receiver can change when we balance the plane. In fact, moving the position of receiver, and even more so the battery, can be THE biggest way you have of shifting weight in the plane when you are trying to balance the plane. One huge mistake I see a lot of modelers do it to immediately start adding weight to the plane when they are trying to balance the plane. It's true that a lot of times you have to add weight to balance, but you should only do that after you try everything else. The battery is a huge weight in itself, and moving the battery can go a long way to changing the balance of the plane, so we don't want to get locked into where the battery will sit until we actually balance the plane (which we are almost ready to do by the way). Other things that you can do to help change the balance of the plane is moving the receiver, the servos, and even the engine a little bit.



Pictures
1. Installing charge jack into switch mount
2. Using another jack to help mount the charging jack
3. Position the charging jack in the mount
4. Tightening the set screw to secure the charging jack
5. Completed installing of the charging jack
6. Install the radio switch in the switch mount
7. Secure the switch in place.
8. Completed installation of the switch
9. Completed installation of the switch
10. Place the receiver and battery in the fuselage prior to balancing the plane
11. Place the receiver and battery in the fuselage prior to balancing the plane
12. Place the receiver and battery in the fuselage prior to balancing the plane

Until next time

Ken

bruce88123

Great pictures Ken, a little big though ,

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Bruce, I saw that. That's not my fault. They get that whenever one of the RCU image servers is ready for a reboot. It'll clear up as soon as Marc reboots it.

Ahh the wonders that exist in Mr. Gates' world!!!!

Ken

bruce88123

Sheeesh, now he blames it on Marc and Bill Gates. [:'(] I'm going home, maybe you'll get it done by Monday.


Everybody have a good weekend.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I know that to some it may seem like we have gotten away from actually “building” the trainer. As much as I hate doing these little things on a plane, I do acknowledge that it's the attention to the little details that make the difference between a “so-so” plane and an outstanding plane. But rest easy, we're going to get back into the meat of the build now. In fact, the next few steps can well be the most important part of building an airplane. We're going to work on putting the tail section of the plane together. I say that it's important because no matter what else you do, if the tail is crooked or out of line the plane just will not fly straight. Yes you can use trim tabs to overcome problems from a crooked tail section but it'll never fly like it's supposed to. But putting a tail section together isn't as difficult as it may seem. It just takes a little patience and attention to detail to ensure that it all goes together correctly. So with that said, let's roll up our sleeves and start to work on the tail section.

As we assembled the tail sections you may have wondered to yourself why we didn't worry about the edges of our assemblies being perfect and square. That's because it's a lot easier to square up your work after you finish it than to build that way. In picture #1 you can see exactly what I am talking about, the edge of our horizontal stabilizer is pretty ragged. So let's get that cleaned up. First thing to do is to mark the straight line that we need to get the surface down to (picture #2). Use a straightedge to mark the edge of the area (picture #3). Once you have that done go ahead and use a large sanding block to sand the edge of the stabilizer straight (pictures #4 and #5). Picture #6 shows the completed edge. Even though I showed only one side being done here you'll want to go through and do all the edges of our tail section the same way. One of the things we will need to do now is to prep the leading edges of the tail sections for being rounded off. While you don't have to do this I find it easier to do if I mark the centerline of the leading edge. Use a ruler and straightedge to mark the centerline (picture #7, #8, and #9). With that done we can move on in getting the tail sections prepped for assembly.



Pictures
1. The edges of our tail surfaces are pretty rough after building them.
2. Use a straightedge to mark the edge of the surface
3. The edge marked and ready to sand.
4. Use a sanding block to sand the surface down to our mark
5. Use a sanding block to sand the surface down to our mark
6. The edge of our surface after sanding straight.
7. Marking the centerline of the leading edge prior to rounding off.
8. Marking the centerline of the leading edge prior to rounding off.
9. Marking the centerline of the leading edge prior to rounding off.

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Moving right along with our build. Let's continue to prep our tail surfaces for assembly.

Some things that need to be done when building a plane can be done in several different ways. While a lot of builders will leave all the sanding for one time, usually after the plane is assembled (myself included). But we can save ourselves a lot of work down the road if we take the time to think about the best way to do things, and when to do them. What I am referring to here is leveling the top and bottom of our horizontal stabilizer (the same will apply to the vertical stab too). We could leave this step for after everything is assembled, but it's a lot easier to sand now than it will be after we assemble it. And besides, we really need to do this now because properly assembling the tail section is going to be determined by how flat the top of the horizontal stabilizer is. Looking at pictures #1 and #2 it looks pretty easy to just sand the top of the horizontal stab. While it can be done like I show in the first 2 pictures, there is a little better way to do it (isn't always that way??). You'll be better off if you use a longer sanding bar and securing the work so that it doesn't move. In pictures #3, #4, and #5 you can see where I have used the magnets from my building system to secure the work piece. If you don't have a magnetic system you can simply pin the piece to the work area, just make sure you don't have any pins extending up above the surface we are going to sand. As you can see in pictures #6 and #7 I am using a sanding bar that is long enough to sand the entire surface at one time. While it's not 100% needed to do it that way, it is easier to do a good job if you do. By using a long sanding bar you ensure that you are sanding the surface uniformly across the work area, and not leaving it “wavy”. We need to go ahead and sand the entire top until it is smooth all the way across the surface. Don't get freaked out by the amount of dust that is produced when you do this, because there will be a lot of dust. In fact, you'll want to make sure that wherever you sand it's going to be ok to have some dust kicked up. If you have electronics such as a TV or a computer in the room you'll probably not want to do your sanding in that room. This is because the dust will get inside of the device and coat the circuitry with a layer of dust which will cause it to run hotter, and we all know that heat and electronics don't mix well. Also, if this is an area that your significant other will have to dust then you'll probably want to sand someplace else, like outside or in the garage. Pictures #8 - #11 show just how much dust can be made by just a little bit if sanding. Once you have this surface done go ahead and turn the work over and sand the other side smooth too. With that done go ahead and get the vertical stabilizer too.

Pictures
1. The top and bottom surfaces of our stabilizers need to be sanded smooth
2. The top and bottom surfaces of our stabilizers need to be sanded smooth
3. Securing the work piece will make it easier to sand smooth.
4. Securing the work piece will make it easier to sand smooth.
5. Securing the work piece will make it easier to sand smooth.
6. Use a long sanding bar to sand the entire work area at once.
7. Use the sanding bar to sand the stabilizer smooth on both sides.
8. Don't worry, this is going to make a lot of dust.
9. Don't worry, this is going to make a lot of dust.
10. Don't worry, this is going to make a lot of dust.
11. Completed sanding the top of our stabilizer.


Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Continuing on from where we left off we need to round off the leading edges of our tail surfaces. Spending a little time here to get these well rounded off will pay off when it comes time to cover the plane. The curved lines really help make a plane look good!!!

I've noticed in the almost 10 years that I've been in this hobby that there are a lot of tools out there, and every one of them claims to make something easy to do. In this case I am referring to the many “contour” sanders that are out there. The one in picture #1 has 3 different contours on it, a small radius, a large radius, and a 45 degree contour. While in principal this would look like it's a great tool and would save you lots of work. I'm not saying this isn't true, but in my experiences this tool wasn't worth the money. In picture #2 you can see trying to use the small radius to round off the leading edges or our stabilizer. In practice I found using this tool very difficult. First off, if the radius of your work doesn't match up with the radius of the contour of the tool you run the risk of “gouging” out grooves with the edge of the contour. Also, I found it very difficult to get sandpaper to adhere to the inside of the small contour. I've tried several different things including adhesive backed sandpaper and by spraying 3M 77 adhesive on the sandpaper, but I still couldn't keep the paper stuck in place. So if this tool is no good, what do I use to round off the leading edge?? A good old flat sanding block and piece of sanding paper is what I use. This is where that centerline we drew earlier comes into play. It will give us a guide to use as we start sanding down the leading edge (picture #3). In picture #4 you can see that I've started to “round off” the edge of our work area. In picture #5 you can see that I continue working to round off the edge. Looking at picture # 6 you can see that the rounded off area leads right up to the centerline that we drew earlier. Now turn your work piece around and do the other side the same way. Now it's time to use a good old fashion piece of sandpaper. Here I'm going to use 150 grit paper (pictures #7 and #8). Wrap the paper around the “rounded edges” that we should have by now and finish sand the edges round (picture #9). Work the entire length of the leading edge this way. At the corners you want to round them off into a smooth bend (picture #10). Make sure that you round off the edges of the elevator and rudder to match the mating surface (pictures #11 and #12). There you have it. So some it may seem that using a contour sander would be quicker to do, but not for me. I can round off the leading edges by hand quicker than most using a contour sander can do it in. Also, I don't like using electric sanders to round off the edges either. Why? Because electric sanders can eat up a bunch of balsa wood in a hurry if you aren't careful, and because of that I prefer to to it by hand so I can have better control over the progress of my work.

If you haven't done it yet, go ahead and round off the leading edges of both stabilizers.

Pictures
1. Commercially made contour sanders are available.
2. Using a contour sander to round off the leading edge.
3. When rounding off by hand start off with a centerline of the leading edge
4. Start working on one side and round off towards the centerline.
5. Start working on one side and round off towards the centerline.
6. Once side of the leading edge rounded off.
7. Use 150 grit sanding paper to finish rounding off the area.
8. Use 150 grit sanding paper to finish rounding off the area.
9. Use the sanding paper to complete the rounding off of the leading edge.
10. Make sure you round off the corners of your piece.
11. Round off the edges of the elevator and rudder to match the mounting surface
12. Round off the edges of the elevator and rudder to match the mounting surface

Until next time

Ken

carrellh

I bought one of those contour sanders. It lives in the bottom drawer of the tool box. Like you wrote, the little radius cuts gouges and the big one is too big for tail surfaces and too little for wing leading edges.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Carrell,
I'm not even sure where I picked mine up. I know that I didn't buy it. I think that I acquired it when I bought out somebody getting out of the hobby.

Kind of sad when you can't even remember if you bought a tool or not!!!

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

With the horizontal stabilizer sanded level it's time to get it ready to mount on the plane. I've said this before but I'll say it again, take your time in these next steps and get them right. Having a properly build and a straight tail section will make or break how your plane flies. It can mean the difference between a plane that is a true joy to fly and a complete dog that you can't wait to get rid of.

The first thing to do is attach the horizontal stabilizer, but before we can do that we need to make sure that it sits square with the fuselage and that it's level. We'll be doing a bit of prep work in the next few posts getting the stabilizer ready to mount. The first thing we need to do it find the center of the horizontal and stabilizer and mark the centerline (pictures #1 and #2). Next we need to mark the centerline of the fuselage, doing the front of the stab mount first (picture#3). After you have the front of stab mount done we need to do the rear of the stab mount (picture #4). One thing to keep in mind as we proceed through the next few steps. The mark that we made at the rear of the stab mount is only for reference. Why? Because as we adjust the horizontal stabilizer we'll be moving the stabilizer in order to get it squared on the fuselage. The front mark is set in stone and the horizontal stabilizer will be aligned with this mark (picture #5). When you have the center of the stabilizer aligned with the fuselage centerline clamp the front part of the stabilizer in place (picture #6). If you look at picture #6 you will notice that I've added a couple of more reference marks on either side of the centerline, while it's not absolutely necessary to do this it will help you to ensure that the position of the stabilizer is correct as we adjust the stabilizer.

I'm going to finish up this post and continue in the next post because of the way the pictures limits hit.

Pictures
1. Mark the centerline of the horizontal stabilizer
2. Mark the centerline of the horizontal stabilizer
3. Mark the centerline of the fuselage at the front of the stab mount
4. Mark the centerline of the fuselage at the rear of the stab mount
5. Place the horizontal stabilizer on the stab mount and align the two center marks
6. Use clamps to hold the stabilizer in place.

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

With the horizontal stabilizer sanded level it's time to get it ready to mount on the plane. I've said this before but I'll say it again, take your time in these next steps and get them right. Having a properly build and a straight tail section will make or break how your plane flies. It can mean the difference between a plane that is a true joy to fly and a complete dog that you can't wait to get rid of.

The first thing to do is attach the horizontal stabilizer, but before we can do that we need to make sure that it sits square with the fuselage and that it's level. We'll be doing a bit of prep work in the next few posts getting the stabilizer ready to mount. The first thing we need to do it find the center of the horizontal and stabilizer and mark the centerline (pictures #1 and #2). Next we need to mark the centerline of the fuselage, doing the front of the stab mount first (picture#3). After you have the front of stab mount done we need to do the rear of the stab mount (picture #4). One thing to keep in mind as we proceed through the next few steps. The mark that we made at the rear of the stab mount is only for reference. Why? Because as we adjust the horizontal stabilizer we'll be moving the stabilizer in order to get it squared on the fuselage. The front mark is set in stone and the horizontal stabilizer will be aligned with this mark (picture #5). When you have the center of the stabilizer aligned with the fuselage centerline clamp the front part of the stabilizer in place (picture #6). If you look at picture #6 you will notice that I've added a couple of more reference marks on either side of the centerline, while it's not absolutely necessary to do this it will help you to ensure that the position of the stabilizer is correct as we adjust the stabilizer.

I'm going to finish up this post and continue in the next post because of the way the pictures limits hit.

Pictures
1. Mark the centerline of the horizontal stabilizer
2. Mark the centerline of the horizontal stabilizer
3. Mark the centerline of the fuselage at the front of the stab mount
4. Mark the centerline of the fuselage at the rear of the stab mount
5. Place the horizontal stabilizer on the stab mount and align the two center marks
6. Use clamps to hold the stabilizer in place.

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

For this post I'm not going to do any “actual” building. But instead I want to talk about something that I've noticed which seems to confuse a lot of people. I want to talk about making sure the horizontal stabilizer is level with the wings. That may seem like some fancy terminology but it all boils down to simply having the wing and the horizontal stabilizer being parallel. Even if the wing isn't sitting squarely on the fuselage it will fly ok as long at the horizontal stabilizer is at that same angle to the fuselage as the wing is. Keep in mind here that I'm not talking about incidence, rather I am talking about the level of the wing and stabilizer if you are looking down the fuselage. Incidence refers to the angle of attack that the wing and stabilizer have if you are looking at them from the side of the plane. While on a lot of planes measuring and setting the incidence is important, for our trainer and for beginning pilots having to worry about incidence is way more information than needs to be worried about. If your interested in how the incidence affects the plane I'd encourage you to spend some time over in the aerodynamics forums here on RCU, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to help you out. For the purpose of our build we will not be worrying about the incidence of the wing or the stabilizer.

Let me talk about setting the level of the stabilizer and making sure it's the same as the wing. I'm sure that if you look around you can find some fancy tool to make sure this is set up correctly, but in all honesty you already have the best tool for doing this with. In fact you have two of the best tools to do this with. It's called the good ole' Mark 1.0 Human Eyeball!! I know that doesn't sound like it should be right, but it is. Honestly, in the years that I've been building I've tried many different things to do this with and I always seem to keep coming back to using my eyes to make this check. To make this check it's really as simple as standing behind the plane, looking at the stabilizer and wing, and making sure that the stabilizer is even with the wing. It's just that simple.

While it is a simple think to do, there are some things that can help to make this a bit easier. So here are a few pointers that I have found to help me out. First of all you need to set the plane up so that the wing is pretty much level. I know that I said the actual angle of the wing on the fuselage isn't critical, but it is to the human eyeball. If the wing isn't sitting level it will cause the whole thing to “not look right”. This is simply an illusion that fools your brain into thinking it's not correct, so it's just easier in the long run to set the wing level for this check. Next is the angle that you're looking at. If you'll look at the pictures with this post you can see that the appearance of the wing and stabilizer will change with the angle you are looking at it from. So you want to be standing directly behind the plane, and have you eyes down at the level of the horizontal stabilizer. What you will be looking for is that the stabilizer is the same distance from the wing on both sides of the stabilizer. Make sure that you are far enough back behind the plane so that you can see both sides and that you don't have the move your head compare. Another trick that can help a lot when you are doing this would be to close one eye. A lot of time the binocular vision that us “top of the food chain” humans have can actually hurt you when you are checking this.

Ok, now with all of that said it really boils down to the fact that you want to look at horizontal stabilizer and make sure it's level with the wing. A lot of people won't trust their eyes when making this check, so here is another little tip that can help out a lot. Use a digital camera. Yep, pretty simple. Position the camera at the same level with and directly behind the fuselage, and then take a picture. You can then print out the picture and use a ruler to see if the stabilizer is the same distance from the wing on both sides of the fuselage.

Hopefully this will help everybody out, and I hope that I haven't confused you all even more with this explanation that I've given!!!!

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Ok, so now that we know what we're looking for it's time to check the stabilizer and see how it sits on the stab mount. If you'll look at picture #1 you can see that the left side of the stabilizer sits lower than the right (see, using a digital camera is easier!!!! ) After we determine what needs to be done we need to sand the stab mount in order to bring the stabilizer inline with the wing. Since the left side sits too low (or the right side too high) we need to sand down the right side of the stab mount (picture #2). A little tip about sanding is that you should do just a little bit at a time, and check your work often. So sand a little bit, and then check to see if you have it level. If you look at pictures #3 - #6 you can see that the stabilizer is now sitting level. I took these pictures from different angles so that we can see that it's sitting level now.

With the stab mount/stabilizer sitting level we can epoxy the horizontal stabilizer in place. This may sound a little bit silly, but before I epoxy a large assembly like this in place I will do a few “practice runs” before I actually apply the glue. What I mean by that is exactly what it said, practice. I put all the assembly parts laid out, any clamps I need, and anything else that is going to be used to put this on and then I will practice doing it. This will let you work out exactly how you should attach the piece as well as where to clamp it. By practicing this several time you won't have any surprises when you are actually working against the clock as the glue is drying.

As I've said many times before in this thread I don't really like using 5-minute epoxy, so we're going to use 30-minute (or higher) epoxy to set the stabilizer in place. Mix up your epoxy and spread a thin layer on the stab mount (pictures #7 and #8). With the epoxy in place you can mount the stabilizer in place, using your reference marks to properly align it. Clamp it in place (pictures #9 and #10) and let it sit while the epoxy cures. You can see the final attached stabilizer in picture #11.


Pictures
1. The left side of the horizontal stabilizer sits too low
2. Sand the stab mount to level the stabilizer
3. Checking the stabilizer to make sure it's level with the wing
4. Checking the stabilizer to make sure it's level with the wing
5. Checking the stabilizer to make sure it's level with the wing
6. Checking the stabilizer to make sure it's level with the wing
7. Apply 30 minute epoxy to glue the stabilizer in place
8. Apply 30 minute epoxy to glue the stabilizer in place
9. Place the stabilizer in place and clamp to hold while epoxy dries
10. Place the stabilizer in place and clamp to hold while epoxy dries
11. Completed attaching stabilizer

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Moving right along, now that we have the horizontal stabilizer in place (make sure the epoxy is completely cured before moving on. Letting sit overnight is a great idea) we can move on to the vertical stabilizer (sometimes this is referred to as the “fin”). I've read that some people will add tri-stock to the sides of the vertical stabilizer to get a more durable joint. While I understand why some may need to do that, I don't feel that it's needed. If you take some care and get a good epoxy joint you shouldn't need to add extra wood to the joint. Now I'm not saying that you can't do this if you want to, it's just something that I choose not to do.

By now you're probably figuring out that just about everything we do when building calls for a little bit of prep work. This step is no different. Just like with the horizontal stabilizer we need to make sure that the vertical stabilizer sits properly and is straight on the fuselage. Unlike the horizontal stabilizer where it's possible to be out of square with the fuselage, the vertical stabilizer needs to be straight in line with the fuselage. With that in mind let's jump in and get the vertical stabilizer ready to mount.

First off we need to mark the center of the vertical stabilizer. You will want to do this at the rear of the stabilizer (picture #1). It wouldn't hurt to do this at the front of the stabilizer either, even though there is a cutout to mount the front of the stabilizer in. You'll want to do this because in most cases the cutout will be oversize, so it will be hard to correctly position the stabilizer in the cutout unless you mark the centerline. In picture # 2 you can see the original mark that we made when we mounted the horizontal stabilizer, we can use this mark as a reference here too. As I just mentioned it will help us to mark at both the front and rear of the vertical stabilizer. The way that I've done this is to mark where the outside edges of the vertical stabilizer will be on the fuselage (pictures #3 and #4). If haven't already done it you'll need to continue the centerline from the front of the horizontal stabilizer to the rear of it. This will be the reference mark that we will line up the rear of the vertical stabilizer on (picture #5). Before we epoxy the vertical stabilizer in place we need to make a couple more checks to make sure it can be properly positioned. Check to see that the entire bottom of the vertical stabilizer sits flat on the horizontal stabilizer and on the fuselage (picture #6). Remember that the forward part of the vertical stabilizer angles upward along the fuselage, so you'll want to make sure that part of the stabilizer sits flat too. The last check that we need to make is that the vertical stabilizer sits square to the horizontal stabilizer. Use a square to make this check, and try to be as accurate as you can to make sure the vertical stabilizer sits at 90° to the horizontal stabilizer (picture #7).

If any of these things that we just check are out of line take the time now to get them correct. As I said before, having a good straight tail section will help make for a great airplane.


Pictures
1. Mark the center of the vertical stabilizer
2. Mark the center of the fuselage at the forward edge of the horizontal stabilizer
3. It helps to mark where the outside edge of the vertical stabilizer will sit.
4. It helps to mark where the outside edge of the vertical stabilizer will sit.
5. Align the center of the vertical stabilizer with the centerline of the horizontal stabilizer
6. Check that the vertical stabilizer sits flat on the fuselage and horizontal stabilizer
7. The vertical stabilizer should sit at 90° to the horizontal stabilizer


Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

As we did with the horizontal stabilizer we need to practice how we are going to epoxy the vertical stabilizer in place. So take a few minutes to make sure you know how you're going to go about attaching it in place.

Use 30 minute epoxy to attach the vertical stabilizer to the plane. Apply the epoxy to the bottom of the vertical stabilizer and put it in place, using the reference marks that we've already marked. We now need to secure the stabilizer so it will stay in place as the epoxy dries. Picture #1 shows the square in place to make sure that the stabilizer is in place. Use masking tape ran from the outsides of the horizontal stabilizer and across the top of the vertical stabilizer (pictures #2 - #4), this will hold the stabilizer in place while the epoxy dries. Use clamps to secure the bottom of the stabilizer in place (picture #5). With the stabilizer secured now go back and double check that everything is correctly positioned. Make sure that that stabilizer is squared in place (pictures #6 and #7), also making sure that the stabilizer is square at the front of the fin too (picture #8). Once you're happy that everything is positioned properly LEAVE it alone and let it set until dry. Pictures #9, #10, and #11 show the completed placement of the vertical stabilizer.

Pictures
1. After applying epoxy to the bottom of the stabilizer put it in place and recheck the square.
2. Use masking tape to secure the top of the stabilizer in place
3. Use masking tape to secure the top of the stabilizer in place
4. Use masking tape to secure the top of the stabilizer in place
5. Clamp the bottom of the stabilizer in place.
6. After the stabilizer is in place recheck to ensure it is properly positioned.
7. After the stabilizer is in place recheck to ensure it is properly positioned.
8. After the stabilizer is in place recheck to ensure it is properly positioned.
9. Completed attachment of the vertical stabilizer
10. Completed attachment of the vertical stabilizer
11. Completed attachment of the vertical stabilizer

Until next time

Ken

bruce88123

I may have missed the announcement but??? Has the plane been delivered yet? And has it been flown by SeaBee and the girls?

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Not yet.