The following sketch shows where I am with the aft fuselage plug:
You can see that I have joined the 6" aluminum tube with the 1" water pipe extension, and added the T adapter where the vertical stabilizer spindle joins. Having a lathe at hand really made that a lot easier than last time.
Tonight I'm going to start unpacking the foam cores for the aft fuselage plug, and use them to check the straightness of the spindles. After making any necessary adjustments, I'll probably pour a bunch of epoxy into the adapters between the 6" and 1" tubes to secure them.
Another thing I need to do is relieve the inside of the aft foam cores so that they fit around the T adapter on the spindle extension. The inside of the aft cores are cut with a 0.66" radius to fit over the 1" water pipe. Where the T goes, I'll just hog out the foam with a utility knife to get adequate clearance around the T and the vertical spindle.
page updated 9 September 2003 all text and graphics copyright (c) 2003 HP Aircraft, LLC