Boomer Build

[d]

The Cult Of The Butch's Boomer has been growing in the East Bay, and is now spreading to Baylands. Mostly it's Pete Johnson's fault with agitation by Mike Nadler. Now Gary Morgan and I are sucked in too.

The online instructions for building are a bit hard to figure out, but I got a chance to check out Kevin Chin's excellent build and all came clear.

This is not meant to be anything definitive, but just clear up some points for anyone else building one while showing how I did mine. I'm sure there are better ideas floating around out there.


Dave "53" North

[d]

Step one is simple enough: glue the carbon booms to the vertical stabilizers. To get a decent fit in the stabs, I first cut out a little slot (45 degrees from each side) and then opened it up to fit with sandpaper.

I stuck in a little canopy glue (not much) and let it dry with some tape to hold the booms in place.

The carbon booms should go all the way to the end, or just short of it. i couldn't be sure what's best, but I set mine up just short.

[d]

If your kit is like mine (and most aren't) you might also have to cut the boom slots. This is easy, and similar to grooving the vertical stabs. Just make a cut parallel to the center of the wing. I put mine out 4-1/2" from the center and made the slot about 1/8" wide. Worked fine.

Might be best to check both against each other to make sure they're coming out of the wings parallel to each other. And leave a little slop in the slots for later adjustment.

[d]

What could be simpler? The or iginal wings were cut down by Butch, and he did a great job. The match will be perfect. So just stick a little glue in there and secure them with tape for a while.

In fact the fit and finish of all the parts Butch did are amazingly good. The kit is well worth the $60 asking price.

[d]

Time to attach the booms.

The first thing I did was mark the approximate location of the horizontal stab. That way I could use it to help position the booms. A little masking tape and you're there. A mark or two on it helps with figuring front and back.

The horizontal stab is NOT glued on at this time!

Put a little slow-set glue on your booms and slip them in. Then the "Get It Straight" panic begins...

[d]

Once you have the booms aligned as well as you can, it's time to tape them in place to dry. Not much to explain here, but this is how I did it.

With deeper slots you'd be able to seal the front of the booms in. I don't think up/down angle matters much, but side-to-side sure does. And make sure they're parallel to each other in both axes even after you put the tape on.

Then nervously walk away and let them dry.

[d]

When that dries adequately, you can add the horizontal stab, which is basically your last chance to lock things down in alignment (with a little twisting here and there ...)

I set my booms so they will lean inward slightly for a cantilever effect. I suspect no matter what you'll probably have to trim and smooth the joining faces of the stab to get just the fit you want (or not, if you don't care).

Once I had everything in place, I just jammed a pin through each vertical stab to hold the horizontal in place. Make sure you have it parallel to the expected angle of incidence (whatever that is! Butch marks it, but you can't see those marks any more...)

Okay, walk away and let it be.

[d]

Next up, the radio hatch. I used the "Pumpkin Cut" as suggested by Butch. When I put the top back on, you can't even see the seam lines. I like this approach.

Cut from the under side, not the top. There are really nice guidelines down there.