Pietenpol-List: tailfeather flimsy feeling---that's perfect Matthijs,

[matronics]

Original Posted By: "Cuy, Michael D. (GRC-RXD0)[ASRC AEROSPACE CORP]"
Subject: Pietenpol-List: tailfeather flimsy feeling---that's perfect Matthijs,they are flimsy!Not to worry Matthijs, that is how the tailfeathers feel--like they are notadequate to steer and stabilize the entire airplane but when you attach all ofthe brace cables back there the whole thing becomes VERY strong. Same with thewood/Jenny type landing gear--it flops around until you install the X-brace cablesand the it becomes a bridge. (If it can take my abusive landings especially.)One thing that may or may not be on the plans (I forget now) are to put wood blocksin between all of the tailfeather cap and bottom strips of wood to keep them apartwhile you rib stitch the fabric to them, otherwise you could pull the pieces togetherand break them. I thin these blocks are shown on the plans. Doesn't take muchbut they are important. Mike C.________________________________________________________________________________

[matronics]

Original Posted By: "Jack Phillips"
I wil put bloks in im thinking to use balsa?On Jan 19, 2012, at 6:33 PM, Michael Perez wrote:> These spacer blocks are not on the plans. Mike C. had told me about > adding these blocks for the reasons he described. Having just > finished covering my tail pieces, I can say that they work just > fine. I did not loose any curved shape by shrinking the fabric.>> Michael Perez> Karetaker Aero> www.karetakeraero.com>> ________________________________________________________________________________

[matronics]

Original Posted By: owner-pietenpol-list-server(at)matronics.com
Balsa should work well. Balsa has good compressive strength. I used sprucebut only because I had lots of scrap spruce laying around.Jack PhillipsNX899JPSmith Mountain Lake, Virginia _____