Question on the construction of the tigertail Ray. Are there forward and aft bulkheads pre-glued in between the wing area in the fuselage? How are you planning on attaching the stab to the fuselage: fibreglassing around it?

Jim

Hi
There is a hard balsa stab brace that buts against the stab L.E. (C drawing) further there is a sub bulkhead that adds extra strength for the front wind dowels ..lets see a 3/16" plywood brace to accomodate the wing bolts near the wing trailing edge -and there is a 1/4 balsa platform that was intended for the 'pipe floor,'as this aircraft was designed for a rear exhaust tuned pipe,which I'M not incorporating the fuselage pipe platform helps with added rigidity extending from the 'firewall rear,'to aprox the rear of the canopy.

The stab will be aligned and epoxied AFTER I drill,tap and bolt on the wing and yes I will add an epoxy fillet around the horiontal stab.

I built and flew my FIRST Tigertail and it was structurally sound around the stab fuselage joint even after an un expected vertical landing I can grin now..

Great work!

What is the weight of the fuselage without the stab?

I have no digital scale at this time and further since I have already put on a prime coat and epoxied bulkheads Etc. we would not have a true weight of just the epoxy plass fuselage less the stabilizer.

Here is a bit more progress showing the framed and sheeted rudder still pinned to the board..

Going slow here :that happens when you work on a different model every day it seems-I had some extra Urethane primer so I put a good brushed coat on the horizontal stab ,as I did all the seams of the Tiger Tails glass fuselage Just got a package of 72"x38" Ultra Light(.56 Oz) Sig glass cloth which enables me to do the wing with one continuous piece on the bottom and later the top wing. The 'brushed coat of urethane primer was dry sanded and is now ready for a coat of Klass Kote White primer as soon as the entire airframe is glassed and or throughly sanded using 120-180 grit paper.

This is looking great, Richard. Could you go into more detail on your glassing process? I didn't know SIG had 72" sheets of .56oz fg.

Sure will R.D. BTW I did not know either but Don's H. S. had the stuff Sig #SIGGF008 .56 Oz 38x72" When I do apply it I think I will use an older process to deal W/the excess resin.

Well today its fly build or relax and I'm good at the later these days

I completed some more on the Tiger Tail IV:sanding off the primer from the fuselage and stab. Next I filled and finish sanded the wing and proceeded to ALIGN it to the fuselage by measuring the wing trailing edge where it meets the fuselage wing saddle/fillet, followed by 1/2 hour or so of trammeling using non stretch Dacron ;when that process was completed the wing was "keyed" in place to insure it stays in position when I turn the airframe over and drill for the 1/4-20 wing hold down bolts.

Wing alignment pictures continued. In the interm hollowed the wing tips and Zapped them in place prior to finish sanding the wing . Next will ALIGN adhere the stab in place.

A couple more pictures illustrating the wing "keyed"in place using small 1/8 balsa tabs---

Stab aligned and Zapped in place rough shaped rudder and mounted wing (chronological order off in sorts,) as I experienced P.C. problems a Physicist could not figure out it seemed..all fixed now or should I say 'for the time being." Here are the pictures.

This is coming along really well, looks great. I'm sure you probably said already what type of paint you're going to use, but I'm too lazy to read back through five pages of posts. It looks like we're going to have three classics finished around the same time: yours, 8178's Blue Angel and my UFO if I can get off my seat and do some work on it. Someone should keep a build thread going at all times in this forum.

will do-------- also will try to remember and document the theasco that I call glassing on the wing and control surfaces.the wing
tempted to cover the wing minus tips with an iron on film however will probably glass and paint the control surfaces glass and paint of which I'm working out to using polyurethane primer (mustard colored stuff) on the stabilizer and fuselage as I had a partial can plus activator left from a scale project.

So to answer your question its going in Klass Kote Epoxy 2-part 50/50 Epoxy. with perhaps a touch of Dupont Kromabase "Firemist[8D]

Center section glassing with 6 OZ and Epoxy laminating resin applied with 1 1/2 brush and then excess removed using a Bondo type spreader.

Wow-------what a mess that last post was,kinda like doing an inverted pass and pulling........but I wouldn't knowso I will down load the pictures again and include photos of the sanded centersection prior to glassing the entire wing,ailerons and elevator.

wing center section glassing and sanding prior to glassing entire wing plus elevator and ailerons

Wing center section glassed and sanded

Went to glass the bottom wing and decided I would install the retracts first[8D]

And cut out the ailerons finish sand THE ailerons..

I aligned, cut for and installed the gear retract mounts,which are ready for the retracts to be mounted and final align,while the epoxy/ sets up.. I'm going with mains like my first Tiger tailIV which upon its "experation"date tried to sieve it self through a tree[:@][8D]

The retract mounts for the mains ready to glue in wing. This is an important step critical to good ground handling,take off and landing as well..

I had forgotten that you shaped the TEs with a concave surface and the ailerons & elevators with rounded LEs (posts #40-43). That's a really nice touch and should eliminate any gaps, too. Looks great.

hey raindav the concave on the control surfaces is a nice touch however I will seal off the ailerons and elevator halvesany way from the bottom surfaces using adhesive mylar or simlar, as I think it is really an important process not to be over looked with any aerobatic aircraft- that I have attempted to fly; as to my control surfaces I would of preferred @ this stage, to have used the more conventional approach to hinging------- but following through to see if the performance improves over traditional tapered control surface leading edges. One thing for sure with BLOW BACK todays G.S. servos offer the answer just look @ the speed and Extreme high torque of the new and current Jr8611As, I think it is noticeable[8D]

Retracts fitted and ready for install to retract mounts which are ready to adhere to the wing cores where they will stay until the first hard landing if experience tells me right[8D]