Arizona DeHavilland Tiger Moth, Assembly Notes And Historical Documentation

Page: 6 / 28

Once the wing’s center section was completed, the tail feathers were
attached. I choose to permanently secure both horizontal and vertical. Both
slid into position correctly and accurately.
Wing(s)
Now the fun started – the bottom holds UP the top wing wing but the wire
rigging holds UP the bottom wing from it to the center section – did you follow
that? Anyway the procedure was to mount the bottom wing and secure it with
6-32 bolts and blind nuts to the fuselage. Using some books, the wing is held
at a slight dihedral angle and some rigging wire was connected from the wing
to the top wing’s center section.
The two wing struts were mounted on the bottom wing and the top wing
attached to both the center section and the wing struts. Now all the rigging
cables were made from Du-Bro’s 4-40 pull-pull cables and their ¼ scale
turnbuckles.
Engine:
A Saito 91 was used and proved only adequate. A better choice would have
been a Saito 100; nonetheless, the plane flew VERY scale-like (meaning
slow and almost under powered – just like the full-scale). On another
identical plane an OS .91 two stroke was used and exhibited a higher rate of
climb.
With the Saito .91 mounted in front of a Du-Bro 16 oz. tank, there was plenty
of room for a Du-Bro Remote Glow Extension, exiting on the dashboard in
the front cockpit.
Radio installation:
The full-scale version exhibited some unique cabling arrangements. The easy
road would have been to mount the servos for rudder and elevator in the fuse
and use Sullivan’s Ny-Rod to control those surfaces. But NO…. I had to do it
the hard way and duplicate the full-scale method.
The rudder servo was used to drive two bell cranks, and they exited the
fuselage over the bottom wing. From each of those arms, the rudder was
connected with 4-40 cable. Two elevator servos were also located on the
plywood tray that held the rudder servo. Again, Du-Bro Pull-Pull arrangement
was utilized with each servo driving one half of the elevators.