I’ve been putting off fitting the tailboom of the Monerai – too many variables and things that can go wrong. In the end I asked my mate Georg to help me. He’s the one who usually does the wing positioning of the plugs of our new models and also has the right gear and space. I had already mounted the tailplane at a 0 degree angle to the tail boom. That left deciding on the length of the tailboom, the right incidence of the tailplane in comparison with the wings and the exact positioning of the tailboom and V-tail.

We first positioned and fixed the fuselage pod and wings at an incidence of exactly 1.3 degrees, so that the tail boom could be fixed horizontally. We then prepared a support for the tail boom and roughly aimed it in the right position. Then we removed the tail boom, prepared epoxy resin and glued the tail boom into the correct position. Using our laser we double-checked everything and allowed the epoxy to cure. The next day I prepared and added some thickened epoxy on the inside of the fuselage as well as plywood bulkhead. I also used 10cm of leftover tailboom to reinforce the inside of the tail boom where it is glued into the fuselage (cutting it open on one side to reduce the diameter so that it fits).