The
3/16 square diagonals have been installed. The lower
stringer will have to be notched where they pass by them.
The forward fuselage
is very stiff at this point but the aft end is a bit "Playboyish" in
torsion. The center jig section of former F3 has been removed.
Basic fuselage structure is complete.
F4 at the top of F3 remains to be placed.
To
make covering of the fuselage in the area of F5 easier 1/6 balsa in
inset so that end grain balsa is not exposed to the covering. A
little balsa
filler
was added in the corners at the bottom of F5. If you look to the
left you will see that a crosspiece has been added between the upper
stringers
in that bay. That resists the
tension from the bay in front of F5 and helps keep the stringers
straight from F5 back.
Using
the jig to cut the slots in the stabilizer main spar. There are
two spacings on the jig, the wide one is to cut the slots for the first
two SR2 ribs on either side of the centerline. No slots are cut
for the SR1 ribs. The narrow spacing is for all the ribs outboard
of those two. A depression is cut
in the jig to allow the 1/64
ply reinforcements so they will be flush with the top of the ribs.
The last SR2 ribs do not have the ply
reinforcement so don't sand in for it there, just cut the slot at those
two ribs.
The ply plate is in the last slot
cut and indexes the jig for an accurate cut of the next slot.
The
same jig turned out to work well to cut the slots in the stabilizer aft
spar due to it being lower in cross section. Sometimes you just
get lucky.
Basic assembly of the stabilizer.
The
leading edge was attempting to go left so I added some diagonals from
3/16 square. 1/16 balsa has been installed under the area
of the SR1 ribs and one SR1 rib is in.
As you see a slot was cut for the SR1 rib when it should not
have been.
Tip construction. Very hard balsa
was used for the key.