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Re: Fuselage Cradle

Subject: Re: Fuselage Cradle
From: Graham Singleton <grasingleton@avnet.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 20:40:16
>Previous discussions on rudder post twist, methods of templating fusulage 
>shape and slinging the fusulage, and most recently stab misalignment 
>caused partially by fuselage twist . . .
>I assume the construction of my fusulage cradle is the time to get this 
>twist issue under control.
>Europa's pre-delivery information came with a sketch of a fusulage cradle 
>that is constructed from 2x4's and suspends the fuselage from 4 
>bolts.  Does anyone have any experience with this design - and will it 
>pull the fuselage into shape?

Here's what I did.
1 Set up the fuse with the sternpost clecoed in and checked everything 
possible for vertical or horizontal ie The two main spar pin sockets 
horizontal and the sternpost vertical.

  2  Held everything jigged at that point, fuselage in its cradle, then 
took the top off and set up the tailplane cross tube level and parallel 
with the seat back bulkhead. IOW
    parallel with the mainspar. I started with the left hand hole, lined up 
the cross tube then cut the RH one.

3  Much later, starting filling and finishing of the fuse I filled the 
stubs to match the tail with about 1/4 degree nose up elevator, a guess 
really. Trim position will vary with CG and speed. I wanted reasonably 
narrow gaps between stub and elevator to reduce drag.

Graham



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