Golden Era Model Service Clipper Mk II

High Quality Plan Sets for Radio Control Aircraft
Carl Goldberg's 1938 Comet Clipper

The tail assembly was made removable on the prototype, but it can just be glued on the mounting plate on the fuselage after covering. The first step was to put he fin in place on the stabilizer and some 1/16 balsa was glued between the middle and rear spars, laminated and formed to fit against upper the stabilizer sheeting. A lite-ply part was glued in placed next to the middle fin spar and the fin was removed from the stabilizer. A hole was drilled and a 4-40 nut plate was installed. A 4-40 machine screw was inserted from the top and used to make an impression on the stabilizer top sheeting to es as a guide for drilling through the stabilizer. The balsa block sitting on top of the stabilizer in this photo was fitted in between the stabilizer sheeting, centered on the hole impression. Note the grain is vertical to resist the compression from the machine screw.

A balsa locating dowel was installed in the aft portion of the stabilzer sheeting, extending into the balsa tail blocks at the end of the fuselage. A hole has been drilled through the stabilizer sheeting and the machine screw is installed, extending down through a lite-ply plate. See the next photo.

A view of the pins and blocks used for the rudder hingeing. Making the tail removable required some modificatin of the lower fin ribs that rest on the stabilizer in the area below and aft of the rudder..