Top Flite Metrick - Manual (Page 5)

20. Glue the shaped balsa forward "canopy fairing"
piece in place, on top of the fuselage directly behind
the noseblock. Use the sanding block to bring it flush
with the fuselage sides.
21. Using a piece of the 30", 1/16" balsa sheet supplied,
carefully cut and fit the canopy/hatch base. Use your
sanding block to bevel each end of this base to fit
accurately to the forward canopy fairing block and
the angled former F-10 at the rear. The base should
be sanded flush with the outside surfaces of the
fuselage sides. Remove the base and with a soft
pencil, mark the locations of formers F-4 and F-5 on
the outside top of each fuselage side. Lightly tack-
glue the base back in place as it will only be removed
after final fuselage sanding.
22. Bevel the bottom edges of canopy formers C-2 and
C-5 to match the required angles at the forward (C-2)
canopy fairing and the rear (C-5) angled former F-10.
Glue these two formers in place to the canopy base
also lightly tack-gluing them to their mating surfaces.
23. Glue the two remaining canopy formers, C-3 and C-2
in place on the base, using the pencil marks you
made earlier on the fuselage sides for location. Note
that these two formers are inset 1/8" from the edge of
the base on each side.
24. Using a flat work surface, glue and pin the 1/4" trian-
gular balsa stock provided to the inside top edge of
canopy sides C-1—be sure to make a right and left
side! When dry, carefully fit the canopy sides in place,
trim as needed to get a good fit and glue and pin them
in place. When dry, sheet the top of the canopy with
cross-grain 1/8" balsa from the back face of C-2 to the
forward face of C-5. Pin and allow to dry completely.
Use your sanding block to sand the canopy/fuselage
sides flush and smooth.
25. Re-install the 1/4" I.D. main wing tube and the rear 3/32"
rear incidence tube, centering them so that equal
lengths protrude from each fuselage side (about 3/32").
Apply epoxy (we used 1-hour type for this) to each
end of the maple "U" block and fill it about halfway
with epoxy also smearing some on the back face
where it will contact F-7—slide this block in place
over the tube. Make sure the tube is "buried" in glue.
Now apply epoxy to the incidence tube/F-8 joint liber-
ally, again, bury it—let these assemblies dry.
26. You must now decide whether to go with the fixed
towhook provided or with a radio-actuated captive
towhook system such as the FOURMOST RACING
PRODUCTS towhook shown on the plans as an
option. If you are opting for this captive set-up, the
installation shown on the plans works very nicely and
is quite simple. In fact, when we used this system, we
slotted the ply floor, installed the mounting rails and
secured the FOURMOST towhook in place on them
and then installed the ply floor to the fuselage.
If you are installing the stock towhook, position and
hold the 1/16" x 2" x 16" ply forward floor in place and
mark fuselage outline in pencil. Trim-off the excess
with a hobby saw. Glue the ply floor in place, from the
center of the cross brace beneath F-7 forward and on
to the nose block—tape and allow to dry. Epoxy a
length of 1/16" x 1/2" ply—provided in an 8" length—to
the inside center of the ply floor, between the cross
brace and the back of F-6, this is the towhook plate
doubler. Determine the location of F-6 and mark its
rear edge location across the bottom of the fuselage
in light pencil. Then draw a light centerline of the
fuselage on the bottom from the F-6 line back. Mea-
sure back 1-1/2" and drill a 3/32" dia. hole through the ply
floor and the ply doubler. Epoxy the 2-56 blind
mounting nut provided into this hole from the inside
of the fuselage—use glue liberally around the nut's
base, without getting any into the threads.
27. Using 1/8" balsa sheet, cross grain, sheet the top of the
fuselage from the rear edge of F-7 forward to the
angled back face of F-10 and from the forward face of
F-8 to the rear edge of F-9. "Cap" the top of the two
fuselage sides between the two edges of the sheeting
with 1/8" x 1/4" balsa aligning the outer edges with the
fuselage sides. The resulting rectangular opening in
the fuselage top is for the access hatch.
28. As shown on the plans, the access hatch is a simple
frame made from 1/8" x 1/4" balsa, on edge. We used
scraps of bond paper front, back and on each side for
spacing while making this frame. As shown, install
two pieces of 1/8" x 1/4" balsa as shelves on the back
face of F-7 and the front face of F-8 to seat this hatch.
Sheet the hatch with 1/8" balsa, cross grain, lightly
sand the edges flush with the frame and lightly tack
glue the hatch in place for final sanding.
29. Glue the fuselage sides together at the rear, from the
leading edge fin position, back to the ends of the
fuselage sides at the bottom—keep glue out of the
slot you have c u t in the rear longerons for F-12. Check
the fuselage carefully for equal bending and that the
top and bottom are aligned. Secure as necessary and
allow to dry.
30. Cut, fit and glue 1/4" balsa turtle deck in place—note
bevel for fin fit. Turn the fuselage over and install
bottom 1/16" balsa cross grain sheeting from ply floor
back to point shown. Use a straight edge and a knife
to cut a 1/16" wide by 2" long slot in a piece of 1/16" balsa
sheet. This allows F-12 to slip in place. Glue this
remaining bottom sheet in place. Once everything is
dry, use a sanding block and medium grade paper to
sand the fuselage sides, top and bottom smooth. Pay
particular attention to the side-view contour at the
top of the fuselage where the 1/8" sheet meets the 1/4"
turtle deck. Sand the side and top view shapes into
the nose block but do not round any edges yet.
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