Top Flite Metrick - Manual (Page 4)

8. You will now need to drill an angled hole in the left
rear fuselage side for the red outer nyrod rudder
pushrod. Note the location of this on the plans. We
used a piece of sharpened brass tubing that was the
same diameter of the outer plastic tubing, in order to
get a good fit. Be sure to keep the location of this
pushrod as low in the fuselage as possible to avoid
any interference from the action of the stabilator
bellcrank.
9. Pin, tape or lightly spot glue the two fuselage sides
together, with their outer surfaces touching—align
them to each other very carefully. Using the sanding
block, sand their outer edges to match them identi-
cally. While the sides are still together, carefully
match the main wing tube holes and the access
slots—the main wing tube holes must line-up accu-
rately.
10. Remove both W-1 ply wing root ribs and both F-11
fuselage root ribs carefully from their sheets.
Remove the main wing tube holes from each of the
ribs and the access slots from the F-11 ribs—use a
hobby knife to assist you. Take one of the F-11 ribs
and locate the indentation at the back, called out with
an arrow. Drill a 1/8" dia. hole in this rib, at 90° to its
surface—this rib is now your "drill guide" for the rest
of the ribs. Insert one of the main wing wire tubes
into the hole in the "drill guide" rib, letting one end of
it extend out from the rib about 1/16". Now drill the 1/8"
dia. hole needed in the remaining F-11 and W-1's, by
placing the rib onto the wing wire tube, lining up the
rib to be drilled with the "drill guide" rib and drilling
the hole—repeat this process until all four ribs have
accurately aligned and drilled holes. Use the same
procedure on the now matched fuselage sides; insert
one of the main wing wire tubes into the hole in the
fuselage side, slide an F-11 rib onto the tube and
down flat against the outside of the fuselage side,
position as shown on the plans and drill the 1/8" dia.
hole. Repeat this process with the other fuselage
side.
11. Remove ply tailskid F-12 from its sheet. Position F-12
in place on one of the fuselage sides, as shown on the
plans. Mark its forward edge location on the longeron
in pencil. With a single edge razor blade, remove
approximately 1/32" of the thickness of the longeron,
forward to the pencil mark—this becomes half of the
slot that F-12 will fit into. Do the same thing to the
other fuselage side.
12. Lay the right fuselage side on your work surface in
front of you with the inside facing you. Take one of the
servos that you plan to use and position it between
the F-5 and F-6 former locations. Note the position of
the output arm. With a pencil, mark this location on
the 1/16" x 1/4" upright former locator in front of F-6.
Remove former F-6 and F-9 from their sheets and
position them in place on the fuselage side. Mark the
location of the output arm on F-6 and mark the
location of the red outer pushrod housing, shown on
the plans, on F-9. Sand or file a 3/16" slot on each side of
these two formers so that the red outer pushrod can
fit with the formers in place.
13. Remove formers F-4, F-5, F-10 (ply), F-7 and F-8 from
their sheets. (Note that formers F-5, F-6 and F-9 are
the same width—stack them to be sure and use a
sanding block if needed to get them that way.) Glue
formers F-5, F-6 and F-9 in place on the right fuselage
side. Apply glue to the opposite edges of these for-
mers and position the left fuselage side on them.
Tape and/or pin this structure so that it is absolutely
square and allow to dry completely.
14. With medium sandpaper, completely "rough-up"
both outer red pushrod tubes. Install the stabilator
pushrod on the right fuselage side by sliding it, from
the rear, through the slot in F-9 and then F-6, so that
about Vs" of it is exposed in front of F-6—see plans.
Slot the rear 1/8" x 1/4" upright, behind F-9, just below
the top rear longeron to accept this tube and press it
in place above the rear spacer, just below the fin. Cut
off the excess tubing exactly where shown on the
plans and use 5-minute epoxy to glue this tube in
place along the fuselage side and at F-6 and F-9.
Using the same method, install the rudder pushrod
tube along the left fuselage side. Note that this tube
gently bends downward once past F-9 so that it
arrives at the rear of the fuselage, laying along the
top of the bottom fuselage longeron and exits
through the slot we drilled earlier. Once the glue has
set, use a sharp single edge razor blade to trim off the
excess tubing on the outside rear of the left fuselage
side. Use a sanding block to sand this exit smooth
with the fuselage.
15. Glue ply former F-10 in place, directly above F-6. Note
that this former protrudes above the fuselage top by
a little more than 1/8".
16. Glue the 1/8" x 1/4" balsa cross brace in place at the
bottom of the fuselage, below F-7. This brace is the
gluing "shelf" for the 1/16" ply floor, forward to the
nose and the 1/16" cross-grain balsa floor, aft to the tail.
17. Temporarily install—do not epoxy yet—the 1/4" I.D.
main wing wire tube and the 3/32" I.D. rear fuselage
incidence tube in the appropriate holes on the fuse-
lage sides. Install and glue in place former F-8—this
former sits immediately in front of the rear 3/32" I.D.
fuselage incidence tube. Now cut, fit and glue a
length of 1/8" x 1/4" balsa directly beneath this tube and
against the rear bottom of F-8. Temporarily install the
channeled maple "U" block in place over the main
wing wire tube, open end facing up. Install and glue
in place former F-7 so that it fits flush to the rear of the
"U" block as shown on the plans. Remove the "U"
block and both of the fuselage wing tubes.
18. Install former F-4, holding the two fuselage sides
together at the nose with tape. Check to be sure that
the structure is still "square".
19. Glue the hardwood noseblock in place. Note that this
block fits between the two balsa fuselage sides,
immediately in front of the F-2 ply fuselage doublers.
Tape the block and the fuselage sides firmly in posi-
tion and allow to dry completely.
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