<span style="font-size: larger"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS">I have completed building my wing with the rounded wing tips, and also thefuselage enough to check the fit of the wing. I have never built a low wing plane before, so I'm not real pleased at the fit and what I thinkisanexcessive gap where the curved leading edge meets up on the fuselage. I don't know if that space is suppose to be taken up by wing saddle foam tape or if I should make up a filler with some epoxy. There is also an unsightly space between the rear of the landing gear plate and the leading edge of the wing. Should this area be filled in with some wood stock glued to the back of the landing geer plate? Any advice on these issues will be appreciated. I will post some pictures if I can figure out how to do that.
Lamar</span></span>

Take a look at this article.
http://airfieldmodels.com/informatio...dles/index.htm

Ken

A little wing saddle foam would be very nice. Make sure the wing is aligned properly and has the right incidence.

Tom

That is minimal and you can easily sand the wing mount area of fuse to obtain a better fit.

Did you remove thedihedral? Afirst, I didn't notice the LEgap and though no big deal. I'mwondering why it doesn't fit a bit closer now. Iwouldn't try to sand thingsto fit, it will probably get worse. I used the gap tape onmy first 4* and itlasted about three fly days before Itook what was left off and ignored thesmall gap. RCKen/'s likehas some good info as always

Very nice job on the wings I might add.

Don

<span style="font-size: larger"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS">Thanks for your replies. The article referenced by Ken is just what I had in mind of doing. I know the gap I have could probably be lived with, but I'm a little bit of a perfectionist. Too much for my own good. I think I will also try to build up the area where the back of the landing gear plate and the bottom leading edge of the wing come together.I think this gap is as designed, but it doesn't look very good. And no I did not take out the dihedrial. It is set exactly per plan.
Lamar</span></span>

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS"><span style="font-size: larger">Well. I've reached the point to start building the tail feathers of my 4* 60. I've read through all the build threads I could find, and a real common consensus is that it tends to build tail heavy. I have done a few things that will help in small ways to keep the plane a little lighter in the back, but bybuilding the tail feathers as light as possible should have the most effect on keeping me from adding weight to the nose, which I really don't want to do. I plan on rounding the fin, rudder, stabilizer and elevator like I did on the wings. I would also like to add some more rudder surface. The plans have the fin and stabilazer sheeted with 1/16" balsa. I was thinking of building up a fin and stab by using 3/8" stock with no sheeting on top and bottom, instead of per theplan of framing them up with 1/4" stock and then applying 1/16" sheeting. This should lighten the back up some. Maybe I'm looking into this a little deeper than I should, but would appreciate some advice on the matter. I will be powering the plane with an OS .61 FSX.
Thanks
Lamar</span></span>

the tail feathers are 3/8' very light frame with 1/16" sheeting. 1/2" overall thickness. Iwould not deviate from this thickness as you need the strength. Your 1/4 frame with 1/16" sheeting should be discarded. To get the strength you need, you would need to use hard, read heavy, 1/4" stock, or add flying wires, again more weight. The plane is a floater even with a heavy Mag 91 four stroke and 8 oz of nose weight. Iwouldn't worry about needing to add weight... In fact adding some in the structural areas of the LG mount, and behind F3 is a really good idea.

The idea of more rudder area is a very good one. Maybe a half to 3/4 inch would be right. One of our guys did some significant mods on his 4*60 including airfoil vertical and horizontal. If you are going to do a redesign of the tail I would take that approach. You could use some stout spars, with light ribs and covering and accomplish your goal. There will be a bit of difference in handling though.

One more thing to consider. Ireplaced my landing gear with a Dubro Heavy Duty Composite. The stock gear will bend on hard landings. The Dubro had good springyness, but is just about indestructible. Just make sure you beef up the Landing gear mount regardless of which landing gear you use, and throw the metal screws away and use nylon instead. If the landing gear mount breaks out, the landing gear will pivot up and poke the wheels through the bottom of the wings. Stripping the landing gear off the mount by breaking the screws for some reason spares the wings. We have a paved runway, but off to the sides, the ground squirrels have a ton of holes. Iwould run off the runway , or just flat miss it and snag a wheel in a squirrel hole and peal the LG off more times that I like to admit. The nylon bolts saved me a bunch of reapair work.

Don

I'm just echooing what Campgems said. Do not worry about adding a couple of ounces of lead to the front. The plane still floats with the wing cut one bay off each end. Build the tail feathers stock.

Your build looks very nice, neat workmanship.

John

I was going to explain the process, but the article posted by Ken explains it much better than I could have. I have used silicon on saddles that are not too far off, and it worked well. I allowed it to cure fully and trimmed off excess using a soapy water dipped straight-edged razor. Be careful not to cut your covering. If you have a big gap, use the microballoons/epoxy mix. The photos shown in the article show quite a bit more than I would use.

Regarding the unsightly opening behind the landing gear: I would not worry about intrusion of oil etc, but if you can't live with the appearance, build a sturture on the wing bottom to match the fuse lines. You can get some ideas for structure by looking at on-line instruction manuals for Great Planes Extra 300s or you could carve some big chunks of balsa, too.

Like others have said, I would not even worry about trying to lighten up the tail structure, it won't make much difference on this plane. Just don't add weight by adding additional reinforcement structures etc.

I used an OS FX91 on mine. Was not tailheavy. You will enjoy the plane.

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS"><span style="font-size: larger">Thanks everyone for your input on my tail feather question. I think after reading the replys back, I will just keep this build as simple as possible and assemble the tail feathers per plan, except I will be rounding over allthe sharp corners. I will thenca gluea piece of 3/8" X 5/8" balsa stock on the rear of the rudder and then cut out some of the extra stock on the inside to keep off some of the extra weight added. I'm going to take Don's advice and make sure my landing gear plate is reinforced as good as can be and also use the DuBro composite lanbding gear with nylon mounting screws. This may even help add a little more weight to the front of the CG. I have already started doing a build up of that unsightly area between the landing gear plate and leading edge of the wing.
Two things that I did, which did take off some rear end weight was tapering the ailerons, which lightened them up 1 oz. I alsochanged out the supplied control rods for therudder &amp; elevator, which didn't have very good reviews, and replaced them with Sullivan Golden rods. A pair of these rods were 1 oz lighter than thestock pair. That should be at least 2 oz less weight I will have to add to the front. I'll post some pictures of what I've done as I proceed. I'm sure I will have more questions.
Thanks again
Lamar</span></span>

I've used this technique on all of my planes including my 4Star60. Iuse Finishing Resin &amp;micro-balloons for my putty. A glass custard dish works beautifully for mixing the putty with a popsicle stick. My putty is pretty dry.

A tip. After you add the paste to the wing saddle, keep the left over putty (I use a piece of wax paper). Keep the leftover putty with you while waiting for it to set up. When the texture is like frozen dough time to go back and shape up the saddle - eliminates almost all of the sanding.

The pics are from a Killer Chaos 60 build.

pic 1/2 - the initial gap. The wing was set "straight &amp; true" with this gap. no biggie
pic 3/7 - taping the wax paper FLAT- you don't want wrinkles.
pic 8/10 - the putty has been added, the wing mounted and bolted down squeezing out the putty. I used my finger to clean up the joint before any drying - cleans up very easily with alcohol and paper towel
pic 11/12 - the finished wing saddle gap

There will be no need for the use of foam tape or other gap-sealing product.

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS"><span style="font-size: larger">Thanks Seamusg for your great detaileddeminstration of how you filled in your wing saddle. I will be doing your method very soon.
Lamar</span></span>

Good luck with your project.

Just a last comment. When the putty is the consistency of "frozen cookie dough" you can cut it easily with a razor blade or X-acto knife. After that you're pretty much left with sanding.

That does it...all these "star" builds... I need to replace my 40 with the 60 size...

</p>

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS"><span style="font-size: larger">I'm at a point in my build where I could use a little advice before I proceed. I need to cover the fuselage top deckportionthatgoes overthe fuel tank compartment. My concern is the tank size that I want to install. The plans mention a 12 oz. tank as the recommended size. I have a 12 oz. &amp; a 16 oz. tank. The 16 oz. tank fits perfectly and I would prefer the extra fuel capacity, but it cannot be removed once the top deck is installed. The 12 oz. tank could still be removed if necessary. Also, is there a problem using a 16 oz. tank with an OS 61 FX engine. I'm thinking that too large of a fuel tank may affect engine performance. I was trying to figure out how I could make a removable top hatch, which seems like the perfect solution, but I can't come up with a way to build it.Wouldit be a mistake to completly build in the 16 oz. so it could not be removedlater? I would appreciate any advice and pointers
I also want to say that I completed filling in the gaps on my wing seat. I did exactly as Seamusg had described and shown in pictures he attached. It worked perfectly, and I am very pleased with the results.
Thanks
Lamar</span></span>

Here's some pics of the tank hatch on my 4Star60 ...

Held on using a 1/8" dowel pin at the front and a couple of small super magnets (1 in hatch and 1 in cross member) at the rear.

Seamusg,
That is very cleaver using a magnet to hold down the hatch. Do you have a picture of the bottom of the hatch? I would still like some opinion on using the 16 oz.. tank vs the 12 oz. tank. Thanks.
Lamar

That is a 12 oz. tank. The rear of the tank is flush with the former at the front of the "wing bay". The front of the tank is 1 1/4" from the firewall.

The hatch is nothing more than a piece of balsa stock shaped to match the curvature of the fore deck. 1/4" square stock is added to the bottom to position the hatch left/right and front/back. I added some stock to the sides and back of the fuse to provide additional support. Not sure it it's structurally needed or not.

Btw - Ihave a YS110 on the plane and 12 oz is fine for a 12 - 15 min flight. Of course, very little (repeat - very very little)of the time is at anything above 1/3 throttle. Yea, overpowered by a "bit".

HTH

<span style="font-size: larger"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS">Thanks SeamusG for the hatch pictures. I'll have to see whatI can come up with. I have some fairly strong small magnets I've been hanging on to for a long time waiting for a project.
</span></span><span style="font-size: larger"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS">Lamar</span></span>

I've used hatches and magnets like Seamus has. It's wonderfully simple, and works very well.

The only trouble I had was the magnets would sometime pull out.

So, if I might suggest, use the iron-on covering to cover the magnets and surrounding area. The magnetism will still go through the covering, and the covering will help hold the magnets from pulling loose.

Just my $0.02.

Great idea.