Chapter 12

Canard Installation

In this chapter the canard is installed on the fuselage. First two holes are drilled in the longeron doublers at F28 which will hold alignment pins for the canard. The pins are made from bolts with the heads cut off and rounded. Next I had to level the fuselage fore and aft and from side to side. Once leveled, the canard (minus the elevators at this point) is fitted to the fuselage at F22 so that the centerline of the canard and the centerline of the fuselage are even. The lift tabs of the canard hang directly in front of F22 and are clamped temporarily while the rest of the measurements are taken. The canard is then leveled and made square with the fuselage by measuring the distance from a point on the firewall centerline to each canard wing tip. The distances must be exact. Mine were off ever so slightly so I added some two layers of fiberglass to F22 under the left lift tab. This brought the canard tips to the exact same distance from the point on the firewall. The canard is also made to sit with the correct incidence or angle by using a template. Once this is all level, it is clamped tight.

Holes are then drilled through the F22 bulkhead and the lift tabs. Bolts are installed temporarily to hold it in place. Two alignment tabs are then made from plywood and are fitted to the top of the canard and the F28 alignment pins. Once they are perfect, they get glassed in place on the canard top surface. Here's mine during cure.

Once cured, the canard is turned over and the backs of the tabs get glassed. Again, after all this is cured, the canard is fitted to the fuselage, bolted on at the lift tabs and the alignment tabs are drilled again to open the glass for some sleeves.

The final step is to attach the elevators back on the canard and trim them to fit the fuselage sides. I liked what other people have done by making elevator fairings and so I trimmed them straight to allow for this. The plans call for them to be trimmed at an angle with the fuselage side, but the fairings look nicer. The area where the torque tube exits the fuselage needs to be filled in and this is done with foam and glass to make a nice smooth fit. Now the canard is detached from the fuselage again and stored away until the control system is installed in chapter 16.