Cliff Charlesworth Olympia build in Bishop, CA.

[Greg Smith]

Just testing a new method for pictures! Next I'll remember to reduce the size...

[Barry_Cole]

These sent over by Greg.

Greg, Your last photo seems about the right size. (You and the glider)

I made these two a bit larger.

I use a free download called Phoxo, you can open the photos and re-size them (Press F2), I make the top setting 1000-1200 pixels, and that seems good. If the photos are upside down (Seems to be an I Pad problem, you can rotate them (Pick View, and rotate)

Then just save them

Hope that helps.

[Peter Balcombe]

Many thanks Barry, that makes things much much clearer.
Greg, if the piece you mean is the rectangular section with a small hole at one end & a slot at the other, then this is one of the two pieces (hand numbered F1 & F2 on my attached plan photo) at the base of the fin assembly.
The hole is for the 12 gauge wire pin which slides into a tube epoxied into the fuselage immediately forward of the rearmost former F24 & the slot is for the 1/8" ply locking tongue (hand numbered as F10 on my plan).

If you haven't made the fin yet, then it is worth noting that I had to have two goes at making this as the first attempt gave me a fin where the rear base thickness was different from the fuselage fin base. I remade the fin with revised rib thicknesses to make it the same as the rear fuselage. Having said that, I did sheet the fin in 1/64" ply as for all other skinning, rather than 1/32" balsa as on the plan, principally because I had the ply to hand but not the 1/32" balsa.

Hopefully, the photo below of my plan section helps clarify the above.
Peter

[Greg Smith]

Thank you, Peter and Barry: I'll read and digest, be very careful with my fin build and try to post more pictures. As always, hats off for the rapid response and useful advice.

[Greg Smith]

Beautiful...thanks.

[Greg Smith]

Peter do you have an idea of how much elevator movement is required? I'm making the elevator actuation mechanism like yours and I want to be sure that I've got enough,as I'm pretty much eyeballing things from your photo. I've made all the components, but will do a dry run as far as possible to ensure accuracy and easy movement, before final installation. Thanks!

[Peter Balcombe]

Greg, just measured movement at the inner end of the elevator trailing edge & I have approximately +/- 1.5" mechanical travel available & I seem to have almost all of that movement available from the transmitter.
However, I doubt that I use very much of that during flying as far as I can recall - but may be useful in extremis!!
Peter

[Greg Smith]

Thanks, Peter: with that much movement in your set-up, I think I've got a bit to play with if mine isn't exactly the same. I'll post a picture when I've finished the mechanism. It has been interesting to construct the pieces and fiddle about with it!
On another topic, I just received from England a book I ordered recently: 'Spitfire In My Workshop' by David Glen. Inside is the most extraordinary model-making I've ever seen. David has some very wise comments about the psychology of doing good work, as well: albeit on a completely different level from mine! The volume was expensive (the most expensive book I've ever bought) but I'm sure you would be interested to check it out - a beautiful record of an eleven year modelling odyssey and a gorgeous aircraft.

[Greg Smith]

Oh: I'm going to build the fin, then the fuselage base, just to be on the safe side about thickness!

[Peter Balcombe]

Greg,
The part of the fuselage base I meant in relation to the fin width was the rearmost part - behind the elevator hinge line.
The fuselage width here is set by the rearmost fuselage formers plus the skins, thus you can easily measure what that is/will be once you have formers on both sides of the fuselage.
The forward part of the fin base is fixed to the top of the tailplane and is made up once you have the fin as it needs to fair into the tailplane at the bottom, the fuselage at the front of the tailplane, and the fin at the rear. I started by building up a balsa block on top of the tailplane, getting the block height adjusted so that the fin sat down in place, getting the side view profile right (between front of fin & fuselage), then fair everything off in plan view and curve everything to final contours.
It is a bit of a process, but take it one step at a time & it will be ok.
Peter