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Continuing work on my Tiger Moth I’ve assembled the horizontal and vertical stabilizers.

Here’s the horizontal stabilizer after cutting the elevators free.

Again, paper hinges are used to hold the elevators to the stabilizer. These were a little awkward to install. I did a much better job with the hinges this time. I made sure the slots were deep enough to put the hinges in without bending them.

And here’s the rudder cut apart from the vertical stabilizer.

Continuing work on my Tiger Moth I’ve assembled the ailerons on the lower wing.

These are the assembled control rods.

Here’s the ailerons after cutting them free from the wing. I need to be use more care to cut them straight on the next one.

Paper hinges hold the ailerons to the wing. These were a little awkward to install. You have to line up the three hinges and the control rod. I should have used a jig to cut the slots for the paper hinges. I got some of them crooked and one hinge was a little bent when installed.

And here’s the finished wing.

You want to get the most bang for the buck out of the motor that came with your plane. An important step not mentioned in the manual is to perform a break in.

When the motor is brand new, the brushes do not mate perfectly with the commutator. This can cause arcing that will create pits on the surface of the commutator. These pits cause the motor to lose power because of an increase in the contact resistance between the brushes and the commutator.

Breaking in a motor is easy. For most eflight motors (speed 280 to speed 480) all that is needed is a pair of ‘C’ cell batteries. No need to rush out and buy Duracell, the cheapo dollar store ones will do. The point is to run the motor for a few hours with no load. The batteries are used to prevent arcing during the break in period. Simply connect the batteries in series and then connect the motor. Let the motor run for a few hours or drain the batteries and the break in is comlete.

If you wish to make a reusable set-up, go to the local Radio Shack (now theSource by CC) and pick up a battery holder and add a connector to mate to your motor.