Attaching the Fin

After a break to prepare a Cyril for the F3B season it's back to the Phase 5.
Next job is to glue to the fin to the fuselage.

When the fin is glued on it has to be jigged up with anything to hand to keep it all straight and true.

The fuselage and fin are both held firmly in position.

Building the Fin

The fin is a hollow structure. The bottom section is made of ply and holds the bellcrank. The rest is balsa.




Ply sides with spacers of 3 x 1/32" ply to centre the bellcrank







The 1/8" x 3/8" balsa internals and bellcrank in place.







The fin being assembled.

Tailplanes & Bellcrank

The next step is to build the fin.
Before I do this I like to install the wires in the tailplanes to ensure that they line up correctly with the bellcrank. The easiest way to do this is glue the wires in place using the bellcrank as a jig.

More Fuselage

Although not required yet, I could not resist attacking the fuselage with the razor plane to do a bit of initial shaping.






The plan shows a plastic bellcrank but as I don't have one, I have made a glass version.

Top Sheeting, Nose and Hatch

Once the bottom sheeting has dried it's time to start on the top.


Before putting on the top sheeting I like to glue in cross grain gusset to held prevent the fuselage sides from pulling apart in an 'arrival'.







The nose and hatch in place. Starting to look 'Fossy'








Tailplanes being glued.

Sheeting the Bottom of the Fuselage

The next step is to sheet the bottom of the fuselage.




The rear is sheeted with 3/16" balsa.

The next two sections are 1/2" balsa.

Joining the Fuselage Sides

The next step is to join the fuselage sides.


The fuselage is joined inverted on the bench. The rear is supported off the bench to allow room for F2 and clamped at the front.




F2 is held in place by the pressure from the clamp at the front. A datum line is drawn drawn on the board to ensure the fuselage doesn't resemble a banana.