aviator79's build

[aviator79]

Good eye to even see which side I mounted it on John! In my manual, the tabs aren't visible at all in the illustration. Because the illustration is a top-left iso view, I would think it indicates the rib goes on top of the tabs. It could also be that they just aren't depicted. To be honest, I don't think I noticed or thought about this until you mentioned it. Nonetheless, I appreciate the heads up. I have the elevator on now, and I'll rig the elevator and check for clearance as soon as I have the trim servo installed.

[David47]

Man, you are making fabulous progress Brian !. At this rate you’ll be done by end of the year. Would make one recommendation and that would be to put some stiffeners on the ribs in the horizontal stab and elevator. I found with mine that when I bonded them in place and left them for couple of weeks, they started to bow, even though they’d been varnished ... twice. Same thing happened with the false ribs on my wings.

[aviator79]

I'll definitely add the stiffeners. More glue syringes arrived from Amazon just now!

[efwd]

Thanks John E. . Now I understand what happened to me. I too had to cut into that wood.
Eddie

[aviator79]

This week, I finished the tips on the horizontal stabilizer and elevator, and rough shaped the tips of the vertical stabilizer and rudder. I installed the trim motor and elevator, adjusted the trim per the manual, adjusted the elevator pushrods and set the stops.

One thing to note here. With the elevator set at neutral with control stick set at 80 degrees off the floor, I did not have enough forward stick travel to get 20 degrees of downward deflection in the elevator. There is a forward-facing flange on the left side of the control column assembly that hit the floorboard. I cut a notch into the floorboard to accommodate this flange, which allowed me to get the full 20 degrees of travel. Also, John was right about having to remove material from the VS rib to clear the rod end. I'm not sure that it would have cleared the rib even if the rib were installed under the tabs, and I'm not convinced it's intended to be installed under the tabs. The best illustration in my manual does not show the tabs on top. Nontheless, I'm glad I rigged everything before covering so that I could fine these things and make adjustments.

I varnished the ribs with the HS and elevator installed, and prepped for covering. I started covering the HS. While the scale is smaller, it's a bit more difficult than the wing because the geometry is more complex. I've spent almost 7 hours just attaching the fabric. Nonetheless, I'm happy with my work so far. I'm going to cover the HS, elevator, and rudder at the same time.

I didn't take enough pictures this week, but here's what I have:

Shaping the tips:






Rigging the horizontal tail:


Starting to cover. I'm pleased with the result of heat-forming the fabric around the curved tubes, and the compound curve of the tips.

[aviator79]

One other thought for those who come after me...

I'm not building in the order things are in the manual, although pretty soon I will be back to that order. For anyone else going out of order, I'll say that if I had it to do over again I would have finished the horizontal tail before working on the vertical tail. The ribs get in the way when you want to drill the trim slider blocks, and there's a bunch of extra stuff to work around when trying to get the washers to stack up while installing the trim servo. Incidentally, superglue to hold the washers in place while you fit them is a big help.

[jrevens]

That’s looking real good Brian! I wish I could’ve accomplished as much as you have in such a short time... I’m not getting any younger!