Another alignment helper.

The slots for the flap control horns at the trailing edge of the wing cut out in the fuselage are on the wing chord line. Even though I make a mark on what I call the extended chord line to help with flap centering I can not guarantee it's perfect location. From what I have seen the 1/64 ply sides cut outs are perfectly placed. The wing built such that there was no sanding of the cutout to get the wing to fit. Same with the stab. cutout. And using an incedence meter the cutouts are zero zero. So I figured that the flap fairings could use the control horn slot to place them perfectly in reference to the wing chord line. I had to make new fairings that use a 1/8 center with a tab that plugs into the slot and top and bottom layers of 1/16 to bring the thickness up to 1/4 just like the kit pieces. The 1/8 needed a bit of sanding so it will fit smoothly without forcing it into the slot. I'm going to use Sig Bond so I have time to align the three pieces. After the flaps are hinged and glued in place I'll install the new fairings. Some sanding for good gaps is necessary.

Adding some fancy stuff.

This Mo'Best has flap and elevator fairings. They can be troublesome to get them perfectly straight in line with the center line of the wing or stab. The stab is 1/8 inch thicker than the elevators and the wing needs another method to center the flap fairings. That's why I mark the wing chord line on the fuselage side early in the building process. The stab is flat but thicker than the elevators. I used a dial caliper and measured the thickness of the stab. Then measured the thickness of the elevator. Subtract those measurements and divide the answer by two to get the shim thickness that will center the elevator in the stab. Do that for each side, my measurements were a bit different. The left elevator needed a .065 shim top and bottom the right needed .068 top and bottom. I got som two pieces scrap 1/4 inch balsa and clamped them to the stab in the area of the fairing. Then slid the fairing and shim sandwich between the 1/4 inch pieces, installed the elevator and fit the fairing to the fuselage concentrating on the gap between the fairing and elevator as that may need filling to get the proper/good looking gap. Both sides on mine needed about 1/32 fill. An interesting note is that the fairings have a curve to match the taper of the aft end of the fuselage so be careful which side you sand on. I used a straight edge, my trusty 6 inch scale, to double check the position of the fairing to the stab. Now you will find that the elevator can't be removed. You will have to rotate the elevator almost verticle to clear the fairing. The flap fairings will get added a bit later using the mark I made to center them. Using the stab fairings to set the flap fairings simply wont work.

Flap details.

Instead of using the supplied horn pockets I always use brass or alunimum tubing and epoxy to accomplish the same thing. The suplied hinge pockets will do the job if you lay it up this way. Both ways will account for any twist in the horn and produce perfectly flat control surfaces, elevators and flaps. The close up shot shows the tube installed after drilling a slot along the flap end to the pocket and another drilled hole from the slot to the hinge opening in the flap. I cut a piece of tubing long enough to butt against the inside end of the pocket end but not too long to stick out of the top and interfeer with the horn wire. This also keeps the epoxy out of both ends of the tube. I use a straight edge at the leading edge with shims to allow room for the horn upright and shims under the flaps to allow room for the bottom of the horn upright. A shim is needed under the horn ends to center them. In this case the flaps are 1/4" and the tube is 1/8" so that makes a 1/16" shim under the tubes to center them in the pocket. I used celophane tape to keep the shims in place under the pockets and mainly to keep the epoxy from running out. A few light weights on the flaps will keep them aligned until the epoxy cures. Make sure the weights are placed over the shims. Taper the flaps/elevators if you want, I don't.

Mo' Best

And there it is. The elevators are done and hinged the ailerons have to be hinged and set up for the control horn. The kit parts look interesting but I use brass tubing for the horn pockets.

Found something interesting.

I was given 14 boxes of avaiation books. I've been thumbing through them sometimes reading about a plane or battle. Today I was going through a book on B-17's and one picture cought my eye. I went back and there was a WW 2 shot of "909". I remembered that 909 had crashed at Bradley field a short while ago. The plane made over 140 bombing missions in a row without a miss. A record for the group. I found another book on B-17's that had a picture of 909 in it. I have a lot of books to go through and I may find more pictures of it. I came across another story on the 909 from Collings. They took another B-17 and fixed it up to look like the 909.

New version of the Mo' Best.

The insurance did send the insurance cards. My computer blocked their email somehow. I managed to find it and get the copies. I'm still fighting with the electic company, DEMCO. I'm getting return envelopes with different return zip codes. I plan to bring my next payment in person and find out what is going on. The BBB helped straighten out their double billing. On the forum there was a post about a new kit from Brodak of the Mo' Best. The price was under $200.00 so I ordered one. Two days later the price went up to $250.00. I built one several years ago from another cottage kit producer and it was very nicely done. Tab A in slot B kinda thing. I was oping the Brodak version would be close to that. I compared the plans for both kits and found them almost exactly the same. I have the wing almost done. I'm shaping the wing tips and that takes a lot of sanding and then hollowing. I bought a electric motor mount last year aand plan to use an electric motor on this one. It's slow going as the fence repairs have made my hands quite sore and sanding makes them worse. I did get some flying in at South Park. The grass was a bit long but not long enough to cause a problem.

South Park is open.

I had looked at the park in Walker last week and it was not usable. I tried again this morning and it was open so I got in 3 flights. The first in three weeks. When we got home I went to the bank, the parts store for some oil and a filter, South Park and found it open( they had lost a lot of big trees)

and then to the gracery store. I changed the oil in the El Camino and washed it. The dust has made the paint dull and it needs some polishing. The Holley carb. is working well on the engine. I called the insurance and told them to put the El Camino back on the policy. They didn't send the new proof of insurance so it has to sit a bit longer.