My Phil Barnes Aegea wings and V-tail arrived today. I already have a Luckenbach Pretty Mantis fuse. I am really impressed with both the fuse and the wings.
I have Terry's suggested mounted methods for the V-tails with the fuse, but Phil suggested that the V-tails could be mounted in a manner similar to the original Mantis and included a small bent wire brace for the purpose. I have no idea what the original mounting method was and would appreciate a description or pic.
A thought I had was to thoroughly wax the end of the CF tube, wrap it with several turns of a moderate weight glass fabric/epoxy blend for a length a bit longer than the non moving part of the V-tail. After curing, pop it off, cut a section large enough to butt join the V-tails to. I would then butt glue the V-tails to this glass section, then form a small fillet of epoxy with Cabosil or other reinforcing fiber and then cover the joint top and bottom with a thin layer of glass fabric. This could then be screwed to the tube and make for a removable tail assembly. Has anyone tried this or something similar? Comments?
I have no profound need for a removable tail feathers and simply seek a light, strong method for putting it all together. Any suggestions welcome. Thanks.
Yes, I did the same thing but used carbon cloth........I only made it as big as it needed to be also....I wrapped the boom with plastic and then layed up the carbon over it and wrapped that with some more plastic....when it cured I poped it all lose and butt mounted the tails to it.....with carbon fillets.....I'll go take some pics of it and post them.......
The original Mantis tails were mounted by first gluing the tails together with the wire brace. The joint was reinforced with some glass. A cutout was made in the aft end of the tail boom for the tail assembly to sit in and that joint was reinforced with glass.
If I were to make a Mantis with a V tail on the Luchenbach fuse I would probably make a one piece bolt on V tail assembly similar to Fritz Bien's method which he shows in the topic "building the Aegea glider". I really think it is a good idea to include the wire V tail brace. My experience with V tails mounted on tail boom tubes (My old WACO Merlins) taught me that they always broke loose no matter how hard you tried to attach them unless there was some sort of internal V tail brace. I have never heard of a Mantis V tail coming loose that had a wire brace inside. There were one or two V tail assemblies that popped off as a unit where they were not well glued down. Of course that won't happen either with a bolt on tail assembly.
Your right Phil......I just re-read my post and I didn't mention that yes, I used the wire brace that you supplied when joining the v-tail halves together......then I mounted it to the carbon platform....
I use Terry's method for bolting on the V. It is the easiest method I have seen. The wire brace is not required for this method - just a few layers of 2 or 3 ounce glass over the joint.
Mounting V-Tail
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Posted - 01/07/2004 : 6:06:59 PM
