Building a Cozy MK IV Canard Construction

Chapter 12

Canard Instalation

 

Click on the pictures for a larger image.

In this chapter I will be attaching the canard to the fuselage. This chapter starts out by shimming the fuselage up on the work bench until the fuselage is perfectly level both in lateral and longitude. Next you position the wing on the fuselage and level it from tip to tip. I then measured to make sure the wing is perpendicular to the centerline of the fuselage. I then set the incidence of the wing in relationship to the fuselage.







After I got that, with a number 10 drill I drilled a pilot hole through the lift tab and into the F22. I ran AN3 bolts through the holes and tightened them to keep my alignment. My tabs came out flush and parallel with the F22 so there was no need for filler at thid point. That was lucky. I still need to get the rest of the duct tape off of the front of the tabs with out scratching the tabs.







I next made my alignment tabs out of 1/4 Birch plywood for the top of the wing and drilled a 3/16" hole in the tab. I then stuck the pin through the hole in the tab and into the hole in the fuselage. I then floxed them in place. I called it a night to give the flox a chance to cure. Below is what that looks like.








The next day I added four layers of BID fiberglass to the front side of the alignment tabs. After that set up I re drilled the holes and added five layers of BID fiberglass to the back of the tabs. After that set up I re drilled the tabs again. I then opened the hole to 1/4" and installed the bushings with 5 minute epoxy.





Next is what I found to be the trickiest part. You need to install the re elevator back on the canard and fit it to the fuselage. The plans say to have a maximum of .1 inch gap between the elevator torque tube and the fuselage side to prevent a draft of cold air coming in from the hole. There are a lot of weird angles to try to hit. I was off some and used flox to correct my errors. I wrapped the torque tube with clear box tape for a release and packed the flox in around the torch tube. After cure I remove the canard with elevator and lightly sanded the flox enough to make room for a layer of fiberglass. That worked great and then I applied the fiberglass per plans. And wallah, a nice and very close fit without any rubbing.







While building my elevators, I intentionally built them slightly shorter that the plans said so that I can fit a fairing in between the fuselage and the elevators. This seems to be a common practice among builders.

I next removed my canard from the fuselage and hung it from the ceiling in the garage for out of the way storage. The fuselage was again stood up on end in the garage.







 

This chapter went fast. It took me about a week to complete.

This completes this chapter 12. The next chapter I am going to complete is Chapter 14, which is the main wing spar. After I complete chapter 13 (fuselage nose) I won’t be able to stand the fuselage up on end any more. It will be too tall for the garage so I am waiting to do that chapter.



If you have any questions, comments or concerns, feel free to email me at
Jfisher59@gci.net

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