Stabilizer & Elevator

 

 

I didn't have any photos for the fin and rudder but they are made just like the stabilizer and elevator.

The first thing you have to do in making any of the tail sections is to build a jig. Your spars are built up from the jig using 1/8" ply & 1/4" square wood strips. I built the stabilizer and elevator at the same time as they would both fit on the table. As you can see there are finished spars on the right and spars in the drying process on the left. All the tail sections have a front spar and a rear spar.

 

After the spars are built you next build the end caps as you can see in this photo. The end caps are glued to the spars. After that is dry you install the ribs which are the 1/4" strips going front to back. all of this is built on the plans just like a model airplane.

 

After the ribs are dry you next install the geodetic strips. It says in the plans that you can pre cut your strips. i didn't do that. There are other components that have been built in that would call for shorter geodetic pieces. To me it would be a waste of wood. I measured and cut each one individually.

On the stabilizer shown the next thing you do is install the nose caps. On the bottom of this photo you see the end cap and to the right you see the end cap sticking out in front of the spar. That is the shape of the nose cap, and they are glued along the front of the spar which gives you the shape of your leading edge. Next you soak 1/32" plywood and it is put into a jig to dry. When dry it is in a shape of a U and glued in place over the nose caps. You can see this on the fin & rudder photo, the leading edge being glued on.

On the elevator you need to install the trailing edge. You can see this being done on the rudder at the fin and rudder page. as they are done the same.

There is a lot more involved in building the stabilizer and elevator. This is just the basics on how its done.

Here are the completed tail sections of the 303

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