Always a good idea. That's what the aerodynamic counterbalances are made for. Also that will allow the use of less powerful servos.
Keep us posted...

MArcus

You are right Marcus. The last two days I have been working on the horizontal stab and the elevator. There are 5 ea 3/32 x 3/4" strips that get laminated in place to form the leading edge of the horizontal stab and around the end and along the trailing edge of the elevator.

Here is how I did it. I built a "balsa strip soaker" from a length of 1" PVC pipe. A cap was glued on one end. 5 strips were inserted and the pipe filled with water. Of course the strips floated. I shoved them down and capped the end for about 40 minutes. I nailed the elevator to my building board with finishing nails. I then took the strips out of the water and spread a thin layer of Titebond II on each one as I stacked them. In preparation for the next operation I had previously covered 1 1/2" finishing nails with lengths of 1/16" heat shrink tubing. I did this to keep the nails from rusting and leaving a mark on the wood. One last thin coat of glue was put on top of the stack where it would contact the wood. The final step was to place the stack against the elevator and install the nails. Actually a very easy operation. More later.

Looks very good, sounds easy. Guess I'd do it the same way.
What's the structure behind the PVC pipe? Did you build it for some purposes or is it something else the pipe was just leaning onto?
Marcus

Marcus, that's my windmill tower. I finished laminating the other elevator half. When it's thoroughly dry tomorrow I'll see if I can take an ounce out of each side when I taper from the hinge line back to the trailing edge..

Hi Ken,

my name is Richard Biron,

i built and fly the AMR SD prototype.

I have 32 flights with it so far and it flies beautifully.

ZDZ 160 with regular JMB mufflers
2 9152 per aileron
1 Hitec 5955 per elevator
2 Hitec 5955 pull pull for rudder
1 Hitec 5945 for throttle
1 Hitec 5945 for choke

3 Duralite plus 4400 MA 2 for plane and one for ignition
Emcotec DPSI for power distribution

Plane weighs 59 pounds dry. Here are the aerobatics i do with it.

Loops, rolls, hammer, cuban 8, outside loops, 4 pints rolls, 8 points rolls, rolling circles, tail slide, spins etc.

With the 160, it flies exactly like the real one.

Hope it helps.

Richard

Here some pictures!!

Richard, thanks for the detailed specifications. Those are great looking planes. I can hardly wait to get mine to the flying stage. I work on it every day and have made a lot of progress but have a long way to go. When are you going to put those good looking wheel pants on Michel's plane? They really dress up the SD.

Did Michel's blue and white SD have a lot more performance with the ZDZ 210 than your's with the ZDZ 160?

Michel, thanks for the nice photos.

The one without the wheel pants is mine , i did not finish my paint job !! ;-)

Michel

Guys, you made me envy you again, since my SDs are put on hold for a while, I am prepping to leave for Europe next sunday on a biz trip and return only on 9.23
Besides that, all SDs I am building are for customers.

I decided to try a bigger size for myself when I build my next SD - think of something in the 40-45% scale range....

See ya guys around.

Marcus

Richard
congrats on your nice job. Keep us posted on any news on the flight of these beauties.

Marcus

Pictures of the day by RB.

more

Looks better everyday I see it.
Marcus

I have now finished the horizontal tail assembly. It turned out really well. It measures 51 3/8" across.

I did taper the elevators from the center line of 3/4" to 1/4" at the trailing edge. Tomorrow I will add a counter balance weight on each elevator. Most of the tapering was done with a vertical belt sander. It was finished with a sanding block.

Big Bird,

What a gorgeous on the stab & elevators. I see you own another Citabria. Which kit is that from?

Saul

Now that is one beautiful stab.

Ya done good, Kenny

Marcus

Thanks Saul and Marcus.

It was a bit of work but a sanding tool that I made sure helped. I cut a 6" piece of 1" PVC pipe. I then cut it down the center long wise. I applied contact glue (Welders brand from Wal-mart) to the inside of the PVC and to the back of 60 grit sand paper. I used this tool for sanding the leading edge of the stab and around the ends of the elevator. I finished off with 220 grit sand paper.

If you soak, glue, and laminate strips like I did, be sure to wait 24 hours before removing them from the board to give plenty of drying time.

A few weeks ago I bought a both a belt- and an orbital-sander, both with dust-collecting devices, both semi-professional versions.
Sanding the wings sheeting and leading edges was sooo much easier than by hand.
It's the kind of stuff, once you bought it, you can't figure how you did before without it.

A friend of mine, years ago, built a horizontal, 48" long, belt sander, for leading edge shaping, I was offered it for a few bucks but I'm hesitant since there is no dust collector, and since I work in an 'office' environment, the dust collector is an absolute must.
Guess I will have to build the DC by myself, shaping LE would be done in a fingersnap...

Well, a little off topic, nuff said

Marcus

Saul, sorry that I forgot to answer your question about the Citabria. It's actually a Super Decathlon that was designed by Wendell Hostetler. I built it from his plans. It's 1/3 scale and is powered by a ZDZ80RV single. It is a wonderful flying plane as are all Super Decathlons. Highly aerobatic. I'll be flying it at Bomber Field in two weeks.

Marcus, I would have a very hard time getting along without my Craftsman band saw and belt sander. When I'm building I use both a lot.

Combien se detail le kit de Decathlon et celui du cub?

Merci

Merci, can you translate that to English for me?

Thanks

Edit: I just looked it up with a translator. It says:

How will detail kit Decathlon and the cub?

Now I don't understand the question.

Ken,

I think Mr. Dubois is asking details about both the Decathlon and the Cub kit. Guess that one was for Michel to answer. Merci actually means thank you.

Marcus

Of course it does. Now I feel dumb.[] You must realize that is not a word I often hear in North Texas. More often here is Gracias.

It wasn't my intention to make you feel like that...yeah, I know, gracias I hear around here too, remember, all countries in S. America except Brazil speak Spanish.
We speak portuguese here. We say Obrigado!

Bye

i ask the price for both kit, but i've send e-mail to michel directly.