The "Super Connie"

Chapter 2

THE HORIZONTAL STABILIZER AND THE UPPER RADOME

The horizontal stabilizer was pretty easy to build but it is as big as a lot of wings I've built. What you see in these pictures is 48 inches but the finished stab will be 55 inches.

I'll finish sheeting it after the wires for the rudders and elevators go in, which happens after the vertical stabilizers and rudders are built and attached. I really was impressed with the Micro Mark power planer. I had been "whittling" the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer down with a small hand plane and having difficulty with the glue joint so I tried the power plane. WOW! Like butter. When I saw the ads for these in the catalog I thought, "Yeah, they might be sort of O.K.", but I now have the planer, the belt sander, the drill, the saber saw and the vibrating sander. These are like the fax machine, "How did I ever get along without THIS for all those years?". My son Todd "blew up" the radomes from the three view drawing by a factor of 13.75. The resulting taped together drawing was enough for me to shape some foam that I had left over from the Ultra Hydro Ski project.

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The green stuff I found at the local floral shop for making flower arrangements works just as good. It just takes more pieces stuck together. I found LESS glue is better. The glue joints don't shape as well as the foam. By the way, this type of foam is FAR superior to the white stuff I'm using for the lower radome. It is WAY easier to shape. I have actually "sanded" it with my bare hand. Be sure to wear a respirator though. This stuff gets into your throat and can be quite uncomfortable. Finally, it is relatively pricey. This 18 x 12 x 2 block cost $5.49. You will be seeing more of this as the project continues. I think I'll be needing to make the wing tanks from this.

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I was planning on spending around $35 for enough to do the lower radome until I discovered I had this piece of white foam which miraculously seems to be exactly the

right size.

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But I digress.

The next step was to "glass up" the form with one layer of heavy woven carbon fiber followed by a layer of 2 oz fiberglass to fill the weave. A trick I learned from wing skinning was to spray either the glass or the foam with a light coat of Scotch 77. Then lay on the glass and brush on the epoxy. It holds the material to the foam until it cures. Makes things MUCH easier!

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