Following a little break over the Christmas period, I’ve been working hard to finish the main elements of the fuselage – and I think I’ve more or less succeeded. 

Having fitted the bracing cables to the rear fuselage section, my attention turned to fitting the vertical stabiliser, elevators, and rudder.

This was a little easier said than done. Both horizontal and vertical stabilisers were easy enough. Having fitted the rudder horn to the rudder (watch my YouTube video of the process here) I had to fit the elevator horn – which I didn’t film (apologies). There is only one elevator horn (for both elevators); the elevators are joined at their inboard ends by a metal rod, the starboard side of which features the horn. When attaching this bar, it is obviously vital that the elevators are in alignment, but that the “level” datum for the horn aligns with the horizontal stabiliser in front, as well as the neutral positioning of the control stick in the cockpit. This was achieved with the help of an experienced and engineering-minded friend, to whom I am very grateful. Oh, and with a large spirit level.

The rudder is attached to the vertical stabiliser at three pivot points; a small amount of filing the eyelets on the receiving end was required to achieve alignment.

Once these tasks were completed, it was then possible to attach the control cables from the control stick in the cockpit to the respective points of the surfaces. This provided a somewhat satisfying conclusion as the elevators and rudder moved correctly to the associated inputs.