Steady progress

I did a bunch of work last weekend and figured I'd share. The control line came in sometime I think two weeks ago. In the same order from West Marine, I picked up two RF1853 Wide-D shackles. I was worried because they are 1/16" too narrow, but other folks seem to have them listed in their parts lists. After drilling out the threaded end to a 1/4" thru-hole, I had the anticipated problem fitting the shackle over the cabane end. These little parts are rather stiff too, being hard to force open a bit to slip over the ends; I tried to permanently deform the part, which might have helped a little. Anyway, they're on now and I'm sure a bit of tweaking will help the fit over time.

The major win last weekend was some time spent with a home-brew bending jig made from scrap 2" tubing and piece of MDF. I finally bent the elevator 3/8" x 0.035" trailing edge tubing and the other matching half. I'm pretty sure I've had this tubing since the very first order, so it's almost funny how long it has taken for me to get to this point. Now that I have the trailing edge on though, it makes the tail so much cooler ... when I move the elevator stick, something actually moves back there!

I am debating with the right inner trailing edge to hinge tube connection whether to use the fiberglass attachment method or borrow an idea I saw on another Goat construction site to make a more typical gusset plate type attachment. Right now I'm leaning toward the more rigid, but heavier, method. I've flown enough RC planes with similar torque rod arrangements for the opposite elevator half to know that a symmetric elevator is really nice to have.

As part of the elevator work, I was on a roll and also pulled out some foam and a new X-Acto blade to cut the ribs. Because these have a taper to them, they have to be cut individually instead of the all-at-once method I was able to use on the horizontal tail ribs.

Just last night during a really bad movie on TV, I made the slit to install the carbon rod spar caps. Unfortunately, I have now finished my carbon rod stock and was two ribs short. Fortunately, I recently came across a cheap site for more carbon rods (http://www.goodwinds.com). I need to get some 0.020" rod for hand-launch glider pushrods anyway, so it's convenient timing.

I also re-made the two right angle brackets that hold on the tail struts to the vertical tail. One of the previous ones I accidentally ovalized when drilling the 3/16" hole. This time I also took more time to make sure the strut can rotate around freely without binding. Yay.

In forward thinking news, I struck a deal for the timing of purchasing tubing for the wings. Aircraft Spruce was really expensive and would destroy me for shipping 12' tubes, so I'm going with a less-advertised company that is only 2hrs of driving time away: Dillsburg Aero Works in Pennsylvania. Their price was much better and I can go pick up the tubes in person to save on shipping. Look for a huge aluminum order around mid-August :-)