I had a Pike Superior with
X-tail which I found to be of very good tail stability, probably due to its great
area/cord ratio on the fin. In fact the fin has approx. the same area as one side of the
original V-tail of the Viking. So accordingly, I ordered half a Superior fuselage and a
Brio stab via Jo Grini. The fuse is joined some four inches behind the wing. I picked a
Brio stab instead of the Superior one because the Brio resembles the same wing span as the
Viking.
Everything inside the fuse
matches well, but I had to move the pushrod support plate a little forward. The best place
to join the two fuselage sections would probably be somewhere around the middle, but my
Viking fuse had been broken just there previously, so I decided to move the joint forward
and thereby save some weight. Some microballoons are required prior to the carbon fibre/
resin, since the Viking is more oval than the Pike at my joint, at least.
Time will show if that was a
good choice or not. I haven’t tested it yet, but the theory behind it is to make it
more stable during low speed turns etc. It is also some 4 centimetres longer than
original, from the same theory.
