Page updated on: August 19, 2009
December 7, 2009

Chapter 12 - Canard Installation

Chapter Overview

In this chapter, I will fit the canard to the fuselage, aligning it so that it is level, perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the fuselage in plan view, and with the the airfoil at the correct angle of incidence. When these conditions have been achieved, I will install alignment pins in the longeron doublers at bulhead F-28 and then install alignment tabs on the canard to hold it in alignment. While the canard is held in alignment, I will drill pilot holes through the canard lift tabs and bulkhead F-22. I will remove the canard and open the pilot holes in F-22 to install bushings and nutplates so that the canard can be bolted to F-22. The alignment pins serve only to hold the canard at the correct angle of incidence. The lifting orce generated by the canard airpoil is trasmitted to the fuselage through the lift tabs and F-22.

Step 1 - Fitting Alignment pins

Followed the plans with no difficulty.

Step 2 - Aligning the canard

Followed the plans with no difficulty.

Step 3 - Fitting elevators and torque tube to the fuselage

For the most part, this step went smoothly. However, there was one sub-step that really frustrated me and led to the damage of the right alignment tab. When I floxed the alignment pin in place, a little bit of epoxy seeped into the space between the pin and the tab thus bonding the two. In my frustration to remove the tab, I broke the foam in the tab. This was easily repaired by pouring epoxy into the foam and clamping the tab together until cured. Other than that, everything else went smoothly.

After completion of this step, the canard was removed from the fuselage and stored by hanging it from the ceiling. I was concerned it might come down so I used two methods to hang it up. The primary method is using the 2-inch wide cotton straps with gromets in the ends. This is then wrapped around the canard and secured to the shelf hangers mounted on the wall. The second method was using two nylon ropes. One end is tied to the lift tabs and the other end to a screw eye in the rafters. I feel it is more secure using two independent methods as my car is parked directly under the canard and it would do some expensive damage if it were to unexpectedly come down.

On to chapter 13!