Top Flite TOPA0150 - Manual (Page 13)

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15. Cut the stab and elevator hinge blocks from
a 1/4" x 3/8" x 30" balsa stick and glue them into
position where shown on the plan.
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16. Use a hobby knife to carefully trim the jig tabs
from the bottom of the ribs, the stab TE and the
elevator TE spars. Use a bar sander with 80-grit
sandpaper to sand the hinge blocks even with the
bottom of the stab and elevators.
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17. Position the stab on your workbench or a flat
platform so that the TE of one of the elevator skins is
even with the edge.
Carefully sand a bevel to the
elevator skin until the TE is 1/32" thick. The elevator
ribs will set your bar sander at the correct angle. The
line in the photo indicates the bevel. Sand the other
elevator skin the same way.
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18. Sand a similar bevel to the inside of the
remaining two elevator skins. Glue the skins to the
bottom of the elevators.
❏
19. Glue the bottom stab skins to the bottom of the
stab. Press the sheeting down evenly, being careful
not to add any twist.
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20. Sand the sheeting on both ends of the stab
even with S-6.
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21. Trim the top and the bottom of the stab LE’s
even with the sheeting, but don’t round them until
instructed to do so.
Refer to this photo for the following two steps.
❏ ❏
22. Place one of the shaped 5/8" balsa stab
tips and one of the shaped 5/8" balsa elevator tips
over the plan (to be certain you identify the parts
correctly—they look similar to each other). Glue the
stab tip to the right side of the stab.
❏ ❏
23. Slightly round the LE of the elevator tip. Glue
the elevator tip to the end of the elevator, but not to
the stab, with about a 1/16" space between them.
❏ ❏
24. Shape the tips even with the stab and
elevator, but do not round them yet. Our preferred
method for shaping balsa tips is to first use a razor
plane, followed by a bar sander.
The stab is symmetrical. Now that it’s sheeted
there is no longer a “top” or a “bottom.” At any time
you can decide which surface looks the best and
designate that as the top.
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