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Regarding Waiex plans, I have discovered that in order to understand what y ou are doing on page one, you got to go to the next page or two to get what the plan on page one is trying to tell you. Awfually easy to make a mistake and have to re-do something.

Also, there is some ambiguity in the plans, so be cognisant, for example on page WIX T108, the phantom drawing of the stabalitor skin show pleanty or room for the skin to clear the Hockey Stick, but it does not. At the same time careful measuring on the plan shows the skin to be the distance along the forward Spar to be correct. I cut a small circle in the skin to accomadate the Hockey Stick,s interferrance. Hope I didn't screw up.

AL Roberts

Al, try reversing your skins, left and right. The stabilator skins are identical cuts of aluminum, but are pre-bent in opposite directions, meaning there is a left and a right. They are very similar and easy to reverse, but the biggest difference is the fit/clearance at the root.

A Thank-you to Ryan Roth,

Sorry it has taken me so long to thank you for the advice you gave me regarding reversing the stabilator skins. Yes, I did have them reversed and before I realized it, I trimmed a small piece out of the skin to make room for the hockey-stick. Tech support advised me it would be okay to put a patch over the notch I cut. So now I will pay much closer attention to the plans and not "cut" anything without first talking to others as well as tech support, which brings me to my latest problem; The clearance between the ruddervator and the fiberglass tip looks to me to be excessive. It's about 3/4 inch gap. I could bring the gap down to about 1/2 to 1/4 inch, and that would also bring the trailing edge of the ruddervator and the fiberglass tip in line. Here's the rub; the plans call for a 3/4 inch space. What do you think? I could send a photo as soon as I learn how.

Thanks, AL Roberts

Hi Al, sorry you made that mistake but I think you'll find it's a relatively minor one now that you've sorted it out. A small amount of material actually needs to be removed at the root of the stab skins where it contacts the aft fuselage.


It will help us help you if you reference the plans page # (WIX-T08 or whatever) with your question, and if you post a new thread in this forum with the title of the plans page.

Page WIX-T09 says to "notch tip to clear ruddervator". It then calls to notch the fiberglass 7/8" (an approximation that worked for me.) On WIX-T10, that 3/4" reference is referring to the distance between the stabilator's tip rib (substructure) to the outside edge of the stabilator skin, which will be approximately the same as the distance between the inside edge of the fiberglass tip and the outside edge of the skin. Therefore, your notch would be 1/8" clear of the ruddervator (7/8" minus 3/4".) That said, my suggestion to you would be to wait to cut the fiberglass tip until you've completed the ruddervators and can pin them to the stabilators... then you'll know exactly how much fiberglass you need to trim. In a perfect world, the ruddervator ends on the exact same line as the outer edge of the stabilator skin, but that depends largely on the accuracy of placement of the piano hinges.

To forum admins, this discussion can probably be moved to a new topic under Waiexplans called "WIX-T08/T09 (Stabilator Skins/Tips)"

Edit - Split and renamed...