aviator79's build

[Clark in AZ]

Excellent Brian, you're really moving along. Great tip on the laser. Looks like you got a really clean, straight line and a tight fit. Good job!

Clark

[aviator79]

The only "trick" is to make sure that the surface you're projecting the laser onto is perpendicular to the plane of the laser, otherwise you'll get a curved line. I marked a few points along the laser line, then went back and drew the line with a pencil and straightedge before marking it again with blue tape.

[Clark in AZ]

Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification...

Clark

[jrevens]

Hi Brian,

It’s looking good! I want to let you know about a minor issue that I had (self-inflicted) that you might encounter also. In the 4th picture down (“installed tail access cover mounting strips”) it looks like you did the same thing that I did... the short plywood “rib”, that the end of your elevator push-pull tube is laying on, appears to be bonded to and sitting on the top of the 2 tabs at the forward edge. It made sense to me that it should be on the top of those also, but I believe the manual shows it bonded to the bottom surface of those tabs. Here’s what I found - when everything is hooked up, and the horizontal tail trim is in the full “down” position (leading edge up), the end of the push-pull tube contacted the edge of the rib and actually prevented it from moving as far as it needs to. If the rib had been mounted against the bottom of the tabs there would have been adequate clearance. I had to cut away some of the plywood (enlarge the cut-out) to remedy it. It would be a lot easier to do that before the fuselage is covered and the tail-feathers mounted. You may not have the same issue, but I thought I’d let you, and any other builders, know.

[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!