Don J

Just a fast hello and to let you all know the build is progressing very well. I've been working on wing spars along with many other areas and trying to go to an air show to see builds when I can. When I built this Trike with 1600 VW engine I did some Bob Hoovers build mods mainly in oil passage to test performance and temperature change. As I build the 1835 VW engine for the plane the work I did on the Trike engine Has given me much confidence on the aircraft power plant.Keeping the plane light and strong is still number one goal for me but too soon for a empty weight yet but I will guess around 460 - 490 pound ready to fly. I hope every one is well and getting some stick and rudder time. Don J

Well my friends I nearly have all the interior work done on the plane as far as cables and other hard to reach areas. Pictures are of the fuselage ply being fitted and made ready for gluing. I had a nice piece of 5/32 inch ply to reach from FW to seat back with a 30degree tapper cut. from that point aft I will go 2 mm for 4 ft. then finish off with 1.5 mm ply at tail area. Turtle deck will be covered with 2 mm but with a removable panel over the last 2 turtle deck bulkheads for access to hardware for elevator cables. I estimate a weight gain of 2 pounds with the ply sizes being used but will have a much greater strength with the 5/32 ply in forward area and much less ripple in the ply. Build is going well and I enjoy everyday spending time on it. Root spars will be shortened 10 inches on each side and will leave approx. 10" wing walk for entry of cockpit and main gear will be mounted in wing root.

I finished the cable guides for my rudder as discussed in prior post and added a couple of pictures. I must say it was well worth the effort because cables run very smooth and their protected well in cockpit area. To save weight I could remove some of the tubing between mounting plates but then I have twice the possibility of cable wear on the tubing and more area to keep and eye on. Added 2 screws on each ply mounting plate for backup strength tho not needed it makes me feel better.

Thank you Marty_d I appreciate your support it really makes sharing my build with others enjoyable.

I decided to make the cable routing of my rudder cables a bit different then the prints called for. I made 12- 1/8 "ply mounting brackets to glue to the up rights to hold 1/4" copper tubing in seat area and a 2" piece about half way to the tail . the tubing has a 3/16" ID hole and cables slides smoothly inside and all pieces are accessible by inspection plates or removing the sling seat. The reason my wood is dark in most areas Is because I seal the wood with a light coat of walnut colored stain for I can sand in areas that need something glued to it and see when I'm back to natural wood color then when finished I clear coat everything with polyurethane. Build is moving along slow but steady and still having fun.

I want to share with you all my elevator cable routing and the use of stock KR-2 fittings and pulleys. the pictures show the control stick in place but not locked down tight for ease of work and one is of the duel pulleys at the rear spar and the final picture is of the duel pulley behind the rear spar behind seat bulkhead. In order to get full deflection of right aileron with out cable rub I needed to take the top cable and move it to the right side of stick center and the bottom cable to the left side of stick center (approx 3/8 inch). This is needed because the cables cross over from the stick to the first set of pulleys. A builder must try to keep cable off set degree to and from the pulleys at the very minimum lets say 5 degree max. In this set up the only deflection is from stick to first pulleys and with cables mounted to the stick on center you will have cable rub as soon as right aileron command is given with out the off set of mounting points.I did move one turnbuckle from stick and put it on top of the Horz stabilizer were the cable hooks to the elevator control horn beings the fin is removable. My thought is ease of inspection and less chance of interference of cable movement in rough air or rough ground use. All inspection and maintenance of pulleys and turnbuckles are very easy to reach and service. The routing pulley for elevator just in front of the vertical stabilizer will have its own inspection panel or ring installed once fuselage is covered in plywood. Build is going great and I'm having a good time with it and elevator cable runs smooth and with no binding felt. Don J

Got all the parts hanging and moving smoothly and dealing with cables. Soon will be able to cover fuselage with plywood but don't want to speak too soon because it seams like something always comes up to put the brakes on the next step.

Facthunter: I would say the separation would appear at the leading edge of the p-tape on the trailing edge due to prop blast and rocks from the prop. I will address gap seal if needed once ground and flight testing is under way. I did get the Elevator p-taped and went with 1-1/2 inch tape for more coverage on the stitches.

I got a photo of the pinking tape done on the rudder. A note to all builders I started all my pinking tape at the trailing edge and worked my way forward and this kept the airflow over the control surfaces much like shingles on a roof protecting from rain. In my opinion the weakest area is the pinking tape at the trailing edge and probably the greatest chance for slipstream to lift Pinking tape.

Hello from North Dakota every one. I got the controls covered and stitched with out a single knot showing and I'm here to tell my story. I did a typical square knot with a half hitch on both sides of the knot then passed my empty needle back through the hole and threaded one side of the thread beside the knot into the needle and was able to pull the knot through the hole and hide the knot. This was a time consuming process but I was able to test each knot for holding strength. Beings the aircraft is Experimental I used outdoor 3M brand double adhesive tape used for window heat shrink film to reinforce the fabric at stitch location. You do have to remove the paper covering once tape is in location but a needle did good in that mission. I only reinforced the fabric in the area of the stitch to save on weight. I'm very happy with the finished product of the control surfaces. So glad winter is here for me because of the more time dedicated to my build. Now to get the pinking tape over the stitches and get them sprayed with Poly Fiber products

i just remembered the more Ply you get on the fuselage the harder it is to reach all them little things you worked on earlier. Was able to hide all those knots and is going good. I hope your all well and building your craft.

Don't know if I ever got this picture out there? Shows rudder pulley's and some other details Got to get all that right before ply and covering and hope it's right. Root spars and ply are in my line of fire.☺️

This is the horz. stab with ply on and covered with fabric. Poly brush is next step for it. in past photos you can see how the tip leading edge was hollow and after foam and two layers of fabric the lines filled in good. glue lines are approximately where the ribs are. Glad no rib stitching needed for this part.

Just a fast update to let you all know the build is still moving along. I'm in the stage of adding plywood to the outside of the fuselage and doing wind screen and cockpit interior. got header fuel tank in place and working on a 7 gallon belly tank to extend range. Poly fiber system for covering has worked well on the control surfaces. hope you all are doing well and safe. Don

Spruce was used then painted with a dark wood sealer

Got the Horz Stab covered with ply and added access holes at all hinges and mount brackets. these will be covered with fabric and with hopes to never have to use them but there if needed. I installed TEE nuts to mount hinges and brackets but also backed them with nylon lock nuts so an opening was needed to fit wrench in if repairs where ever required. The picture of all the stuff piled on the table is actually a creative way I weighed down the ply on HZ for gluing (If there is a will there is a way) Got the tabs welded to header tank also. Yep still having fun but that leading edge was a trick on the hz very hard to NOT get waves at seams as seen by sanding

I have a question for the Forum. My Horz stab is covered with 1 mm ply and also covered with fabric on the ply. In the prints I see no mention of rib stitching fabric anywhere to the 9 ribs inside the H stab. The 1 mm ply is very thin and very simple to get stitches through it and the fabric. My question is do builders of the T-mono add stitches with 2.5"-3" spacing in this area beings it's in the prop blast at all times ? or is the weight gain of pinked tape and reinforcing tape along with stitch itself add up to much?? I cut two starter pieces of ply today for the Horz stab to start with bottom

A bit done today. A couple shots of elevator getting covered. 42 stitches on elevator and 23 on rudder at 2-1/2" spacing.

facthunter. Great advise. I'm using Poly Fiber covering system so the pink color of the VS is the first coat of Poly brush.

Well guys the covering is going on well but just my bad luck I ran out of Poly tak glue so rudder is on hold for finish work. I did take the time and add the fabric dowels on the leading edge of the Elevator so it's ready to cover when glue rolls in this week. Yep I'm still having a blast but ran into a bad order of ply for the Fuselage. I bought 3 -24"x 48" 2 mm and 3- 24"x 48" 1 mm and during shipping by UPS the corner of the box got hit or dropped and broke all 6 pieces in one corner . Good news is Aircraft spruce re- sent new ones right away

I got the V- stab covered and getting rudder ready for fabric.

Still working away on the plane. I took the vertical Stab and laminated foam inside to help in roll over protection and give a good surface to glue or fiberglass to yet to do final sanding. Tail group is done other then plying the Horz. stab but all controls work well. Covid-19 has caused some material ordering issues but seams to be getting better. Just checking in and keeping every one posted. Don

I thought I'd take a moment and go over the changes I made to the tail area of my Taylor mono and pictures of most should be in the thread. 1. I changed the tail skid to a full swivel Maule gear 2. Installed 2 pulleys for better routing for rudder cables exiting the Fus. 3. mounted a pulley in front of Vertical Stab to run elevator cable. 4. Mounted Ash blocks between longerons at attachment points for HZ stab and on front holes inserted 3/16 SS dowels In forward holes. Dowel goes from starboard to port side and the aft dowels are 2" in length to allow slot for elevator horn to rotate. The other 4 holes I added 1-1/4" brass counter sunk flat head screws and all 8 fasteners will be capped with 1.5 mm ply per plans. 5. I mounted the HZ stab down to the blocks with 4 aircraft grade aluminum angels 2 per front spar with 4 AN bolts and 2 brass screws in front spar and 2 AN bolts and 2 screws in rear spar mounting angels. This made for adjustment of incidence for the Horz stab +/- 6. 7 hinges were built from Aluminum much like the KR-2 and all nuts that are unreachable from outside of plane have been fitted with self locking Tee nuts epoxied in place and hinges have a drilled head for safety pins incorporated in to the hinge half's to assure they can't back out. The bottom rudder horn/hinge nuts are reachable from the out side of plane and through inspection plate under Horz stab per plans. Pictures are of SS dowels and brass screws and pulleys prier to plywood covering of that area. and the messed up blanket is were I rest and watch TV when I take a break. Wife did say I should have moved the blanky.OH well.

Hey fellas. After many many times of removal and re-installing of the tail group I can say the Horz stab is ready for its plywood and the elevator is ready for fabric and all bolts for hinges are removable with out any cutting or recovering All ideas I added from my KR-2 parts has made for a very strong tail group and the hinges run real smooth. With elevator at neutral position and rudder full left or right I have 1-1/4" clearance at closest point to rudder. The mounting for the HORZ stab worked out very well and I can adjust easily +/- 3 or 4 degrees if needed. Next off I will tackle the covering of the vertical Stab and I plan on using the wood frame and putting aircraft grade foam in the interior and sand to shape and fiber glass with a few passes of cloth mainly because of the ease that way compared to trying to get the ply wood to conform to my fins shape that and my wings will be of the Diehl wings of the KR-2 family. I hope you are all doing well

I decided to open a 1-3/4" hole on each side of the base of rudder to make reaching the control horn bolts more easily. This was done with a hand drill and a hole saw bit and does not impair the integrity of the ply. earlier in this thread I spoke of a larger hole in internal brace to allow an extension for socket to fit to hold the two nuts but found it is just one of two ways of handling this hard to reach area. Thought I'd better share this with the Forum. And we at home are doing fine as is the build . I also did a hand drawing of my way of assuring the single bolts holding the hinge half's on elevator side will not back out during time. The holes at the base of rudder can be plugged in a number of ways or just left open and have fabric seal the opening but is a great way to monitor moisture in the inside bottom of rudder if removable plugs are incorporated into the build.