This post deals with the FlatCat's tail section.
This particular design features a 3-piece assembly - one large rectangular horizontal stabilizer, and two vertical stabilizers.
The various pieces are cut from a sheet of 1/16" thick C-grain balsa stock . The specified dimensions are quite simple to lay out. As with all model rockets, paying attention to specified grain direction is important.
Here are the freshly cut parts:
The next step is to shape sand the vertical stabs. Since this build is strictly for sport flying, and not necessarily for high performance, I'm going with just rounding the leading and trailing edges, followed by surface smoothing with 400 grit. I'm not going to do any sanding on the horizontal stab until the entire assembly is complete and attached to the fuselage. This will prevent me from accidently rounding the edges of gluing surfaces.Now, the vertical stabs can be glued to the edges atop the horizontal stab using the double glue joint technique. Must remember that they are to be orientated in the same direction! (I have to constantly remind myself of these kinds of things - senior moments, you understand). The model would still fly with one stab turned the wrong direction, but it would just LOOK stupid!
A handful of LEGO bricks helps keep things aligned and at a precise 90 degree angle. (Where's THAT in the Handbook of Model Rocketry?)
Once the assembly is dry, I can apply some light glue fillets to the inner side of the h/v stab joints for added strength. With a glider, it's best to go easy with this, since excessive amounts of glue does tend to add more weight.
The final step for this sub-assembly is to sand the corners of the horizontal stab to match the vertical stab round-overs. This is just an aesthetic touch that's not spelled out in the published plans.
Here's the completed assembly, all ready for gluing to the fuselage.
