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**JimD** · 10-13-2018, 12:11 PM

Fin and Rudder

Both are built over a thin plywood "spine" which allows them to be constructed straight and true on a flat surface (even though they have a symmetrical tapered airfoil shape).

**JimD** · 10-13-2018, 12:28 PM

Stab and Elevator

This kit was one of the very first that Peter produced, so some of the parts were in need of slight modification to match with updates to the design as it evolved. For example, the sheeting thickness was increased, so we had to laminate balsa strips to either side of the stab trailing edge and elevator leading edge parts in order to match. Current kits have corrected parts, so some of what you see in this thread will not be necessary in the newer kit builds.

**JimD** · 10-13-2018, 01:19 PM

Fuselage

Start by identifying all of the fuselage parts and marking left and right sides. Note that right side is shorter than the left side to account for the right thrust built into the firewall.

**JimD** · 10-13-2018, 01:35 PM

The fuselage sides are outlined with 1/4"x3/8" spruce stick and the top edge of the fuselage sides has a longeron that runs from nose to tail. Make this longeron by laminating the spruce stick parts using a scarf joint. Clamping the parts to a straight edge assures a nice straight longeron. Mark the location of all the formers (nose to tail) on the longerons for later reference. Notches in the sides of the cabin area formers can be used to set the spacing between the top and bottom stick location. Our scarf join was located to overlap at one of the formers. Since the fuselage is a box with square corners, use builder's squares to keep check on the structure to make sure it is true.

**JimD** · 10-13-2018, 01:42 PM

As parts are added, keep check in all directions to make sure you keep things square and true.

**JimD** · 10-13-2018, 01:46 PM

Note the full-length longerons with former location markings.

**JimD** · 10-13-2018, 01:51 PM

Once the main section of the fuselage is built and is nice and square, you can move on to pulling the nose together at the firewall. The firewall is slotted to make holding the sides together much easier.

**Gliderhead** · 10-13-2018, 02:03 PM

Beautiful building, Jim

**JimD** · 10-14-2018, 02:33 AM

Now to finish out the sheeting around the nose. We added balsa sheeting to the sides that Peter does not call for. Just seemed like a good idea to use and adds a little needed nose weight.

**JimD** · 10-14-2018, 02:47 AM

Building out the rear fuselage section is greatly aided by having a flat and level workbench. If the bench top is level, it is easy to square up the fuselage sides using the bench surface as a reference.

With the front section of the fuselage sitting level and square on the benchtop, the rear longerons should be parallel to the surface of the benchtop. A tail post support is used to set this level position of the longerons and to align them with the centerline of the fuselage (there is a centerline drawn on the benchtop as a reference for this). The rear fuselage formers are friction fit into place (using the marks we made earlier on the longerons) and crutch supports added to keep the longerons level. Take your time and use lots of builder's squares, levels, and weights to hold things in place.