Plans number 1573.
Click on the pictures for a larger image. 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.
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.
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.
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.