July 21, 2020
Today was the day for the vertical stab to be drilled in place. After clamping it in place and measuring from the top of the tail to the skins on the horizontal stabs, we took our time to make sure it was perfectly centered. After a few rounds of measuring and moving things, we got it centered to within 1/32″ of each other on both sides and drilled the holes. I clamped the front spar in place with its mounting bracket and drilled the holes for that after making sure the rudder mounts were perfectly in line.
There is a 1/4″ offset to the left built into the front spar mounting plate which should help counteract a bit of the rudder trim required for trimmed flight. To make up for this, the instructions say to glue a washer under the left side of the vertical stab rear spar to help offset the twist. Turns out that this washer pulled the rudder mounts out of line by about 1/4″ inch. There didn’t seem to be any great force needed to move the front of the stab 1/4″ left to meet up with the mount, so I simply removed the washer and mounted the rear stab directly to the rear bulkhead. Now everything is back to being perfectly in line. If you’re going to install that washer, I suggest having it in place before drilling the front spar mount, because it causes a large difference in where that front spar has to mount to keep the rudder mounts straight.
-Paul
(Total Build Time: 449.6)