"Storm of the Century"

Why is it that snow inspires me to work on Goat? DC is in for "a historic snowfall" tonight according to the meteorologists on the news. I took the quiet day to work on the tail section now that I'm back with all my parts and tools!

First, I sampled a rubber/plastic handle for the control stick. It isn't much, but it's very pretty looking. I think it is a little detail that adds a personal touch to the otherwise very metallic and impersonal beast. I haven't glued it on, so I can twist it around and somehow slide it off now, but I've heard of some tricks with hairspray for bicycle handles that might work. If nothing else, I have some 3M Super 77 that will make the two parts neigh impossible to separate...

I also installed the 1/8" quick link from West Marine in the upper elevator arm (hard to see). I have the pulleys too, but figure I'll hold those off for a day when I only have enough stamina for a 10 minute job (or when I decide to get the 40 some odd quick links).

Then, for whatever reason the mood struck me and I made channels in the horizontal stab ribs for the carbon caps. They're not glued in yet, but I'm about ready to do it (and probably will tomorrow night). I realized I forgot my magic trick for the fiberglass wrap on the rudder ribs: 3M Super 77 to make putting down the cloth a breeze. The rudder ribs were torture trying to hold the glass in place while squishing it with a peel-ply wrapped layer being pulled taut. Now I just can pre-bond in the carbon spar then gracefully wrap the 3M'd glass around before saturating it with epoxy. Duh to me, that'll work super well.

Now I started on the fun stuff, making the vertical tail. I quickly made two gusset parts and bolted them carefully to the upper tube and allowing to align the middle tube with the proper twist. The middle tube with all the rivets in it was already done from my last post.














Then I made slowly the four sheet parts to attach the rudder post to the upper and middle vertical tail tubes. Making the rudder post assembly let me match drill the upper and middle tube holes perfectly. A little while later I made and attached the upper rudder hinge.

The lower rudder hinge is a simple trio of AN42b eye bolts. I'm not really sure why Sandlin used the eye bolt pair and axle concept here and not elsewhere, but I like how friction free it is compared to the elevator. I'm going to debate for a while if I should do the same on the elevator. It's the idea of adding another pair of holes so close and in a critical part, we'll see...





And then to cap off the day's work, I made the horizontal stab bracket to mount on the vertical stab. I did the front one too, but put a circular hole in it and forgot it was an eyebolt that needed to go into a slot ... so I'll remake that part later sometime. I have not yet modified the AN3-30 bolt with more threads and no head to match Sandlin's drawings. I need to borrow/buy a die set to make that one happen.



This is a bad picture, but I really wanted to get the point across that this plane is really coming together! Sure there is a long way to go, but it's fun to start making an assembly :-)