Owner manual

13
❏ 4. Glue the 1/8" balsa rear fuselage side to the
front side with CA on both the left and right sides.
❏ 5. Locate the 1/16" balsa die-cut fuselage front
and rear doublers and fit them to the sides. The front
doubler is longer than shown on the plan and ends
at the rear of bulkhead F3. The rear doubler is
shorter than shown on the plan. Glue them to the
sides using aliphatic resin. After step three it should
be impossible to build two left or right sides, but
double check to be sure.
❏ 6. Place the right fuselage side over the plan (the
doubler should be facing up) and mark the location
of bulkheads F1, F2 and F3. Transfer the locations to
the left fuselage side. Place the 3/8" shaped
forward and aft fuselage bottom blocks over the
fuselage outline and mark the location of bulkheads
F1, F2 and F3.
❏ 7. After the bulkheads have dried, sand
bulkheads F1, F2 and F3 so that the sides are even
and square, but be careful not to over sand. Check
their outline with the pieces shown on the plan. Also
put the bulkheads at the proper locations on the
fuselage bottom and check that the width of the
bulkheads matches the width of the bottom.
❏ 8. Glue the 1/16" ply doublers to the front and
rear sides of bulkheads F1 and F3 as shown on the
plan. Drill the 1/4" holes in F1 and F3 and epoxy
the 1/4" dowels into the holes as shown. You may
want to round the ends of the dowels first. Notch F1,
F2 and F3 for the pushrods in the locations shown
on the plan. Notch the bulkheads for an antenna
tube as well.
Note: Most contest flyers are occasionally forced to
make those point-getting spear landings. One
problem with the type of wing hold down system used
on the Bird is that sometimes during the spear, the
wing slides forward and forces the rubber bands off
the dowel. The wing flies off and – zowie, no landing
points. This can be prevented by drilling a vertical
1/16" hole about 1/8" from the end of the dowel in
F1. You can then put a 1/16" piano wire pin in the
hole, preventing the rubber bands from sliding off.
❏ 9. If you will be installing an optional tow hook
release mechanism you will need to cut the rear of
the 3/8" forward bottom block to fit. Note the
forward and aft blocks join together in the middle of
bulkhead F2. After fitting the tow hook release skip
to step 11.
❏ 10. Find the two 1/16" ply forward bottom block
doublers. The wider of the doublers will be fitted to
the side that faces the inside of the fuselage. Put the
doubler on the forward bottom block and align it
with the rear edge as shown on the plan. Trace
around the doubler and then use your knife to
remove 1/16" of wood from the balsa block so that
the doubler can be inlayed into the block. Be careful
not to cut to deeply into the block. The doubler is
sized to fit about 1/8" from the sides of the block so
you won’t hit it when sanding the sides to shape. Fit
the other doubler to the other side of the forward
bottom block. Epoxy both doublers into place.
❏ 11. Carefully align the forward and aft bottom
blocks over the fuselage outline on the plan and pin
them securely in place. Glue the joint where they
meet with CA. Using the centerline drawn on the
plan as a reference, draw a centerline down the
bottom blocks. At the locations marked earlier for
the bulkheads draw reference lines that are
perpendicular to the centerline. Glue bulkheads F1,
F2 and F3 in position using CA. Be sure the
bulkheads are aligned with the sides and vertical to
the bottom. Try to build the fuselage fairly straight; I
rarely do so myself, but that’s no excuse for you to
be sloppy.
❏ 12. Position the right fuselage side over the
outline. The front end is located 7/16" aft of the
front of the forward bottom block. The top of the
right side should be flush with the top of the three
bulkheads. When satisfied with the alignment, tack
glue the side to bulkheads F1 and F3 with thin CA.
Align the left side and tack glue it in the same way.
❏ 13. Remove the fuselage from the building
board. You must now glue the bottom block to the
fuselage sides along their entire length, which as you
can see, is curved. This is easily accomplished by