Geek's STi Build

[Geek]

You did well. In this kind of situation you use thin or thick washers, as necessary.

As John said, you'll find many places on this build where you use a combination of -10 and -10L washers to make things fit just right.

Thanks John and Alex. I know I certainly didn't like the look of bent mounts and such. I am just getting started on the fuselage so this was a good press to test on how to approach the rest of it all.

Gary

[PapuaPilot]

I used some 10L washers on the rudder hinges so that I didn't end up bending the tabs. Yes, there are a lot of places you can use washers to space and shim up things.

[Geek]

Started working the ribs for the vertical stab and rudder. I also jumped ahead a bit with the instructions to fit and drill the half inch aluminum edge that is used to attach the rear inspection panel. I read somewhere here on the forum where one builder (sorry I couldn't find it again so I can't provide credit for the idea) suggested it might be easier to do the fitting and drilling of those before the rib was Hysol'd on to the frame. That sure made sense to me so I followed suit by doing the fabrication, drilling and fitting of the pieces. Got them primed and painted so they are ready to install once I get all the ribs installed permanently. Pressed on with fitting the rest of the ribs on both the vertical and the rudder making sure they were lined up with each other (so they look cool when I cover them). I built the stiffeners for the ribs, removed the ribs from the airframe and Hysol'd the stiffeners to the ribs so that I can move on to giving them a coat of lacquer tomorrow.

[alexM]

Looks great. I did exactly what you did there, fitting/drilling all those aluminum pieces before bonding the ribs in place.

[Geek]

Looks great. I did exactly what you did there, fitting/drilling all those aluminum pieces before bonding the ribs in place.

Must be a Washington thing then eh?

[Geek]

Got the ribs on both the vertical stab and rudder lacquered with two coats so that fun part is done. As I said before, I didn't exactly follow the instructions when it came time to epoxy in some of the ribs. One of those places was the top of the vertical assembly. The instructions call for epoxying in the rib to the rudder tube structure. That would be fine but the bottom of that rib didn't line up with the bottom of the top rib on the vertical stab. So I lowered it a bit, installed a spacer between the rib and the tube so that they line up. I roughed out the top caps for the vertical and rudder out of balsa and the bottoms now line up perfectly so when I cover the tail it will look straight. I fitted the trailing edge fairing to the vertical and epoxied the fairing to the rear 'spine' so that I know the fairing is straight. I'll do the edges of the fairing to the ribs tomorrow after the spine epoxy sets up. You can see that I adhere to one of my father's adages for working in the shop; "A man cannot have too many clamps".

[Geek]

Got the fiberglass rudder fairing Hysol'd on to the rudder before having to leave for a week for work. Came home and was able to do some final trimming on the fairing so that it fit on the vertical stab with with no interference in it's movement. One thing I did before gluing the fairing to the rudder was go back and make it so that the bolts through the vertical stab bearings went in without having to tweak the rudder some. That was time well spent since once you secure the fairing to the rudder and then install it on the vertical stab, it's harder to get the bolts in cause you have to go through the access holes in the fairing. Having it fitted with a good alignment made it much easier.

Earlier I had done some rough cutting out of balsa for the top caps on the vertical stab and rudder but when I looked at them again, I didn't like the way they looked. So I made a new set, did some rough shaping and then Hysol'd them. Tomorrow I should be able to do work on dialing in the shape and possibly start the Hysol coating.

Rudder Fairing 5.jpgRudder Fairing 4.jpgRudder Fairing 3.jpgTop Cap 2.jpgTop Cap 3.jpgTop Cap 5.jpg

[DesertFox4]

With all that extra attention to the details, she’s going to fly nice Gary and look great doing it.

[RJK_Omaha]

Gary...I must admit, I really like your homemade 'onewheel' used to hold up and move the tail!

[Geek]

With all that extra attention to the details, she’s going to fly nice Gary and look great doing it.

Gary...I must admit, I really like your homemade 'onewheel' used to hold up and move the tail!

Thanks guys. I enjoy this kind of thing and it keeps me off the streets; the women and children all safe. Can't wait to fly it but admit certain to enjoying this part of the experience as well. As for the one wheel it works well for me. When I was working wings over the summer it made moving the fuselage in and out of the shop really easy. Right now I have it off so that the tail is down lower and I can work the top caps. Once they are done I'll put it back on just because it makes moving it around. When I get to the point where I have to roll the fuselage over to work the bottom, I'll have to figure something else out.

G