Hatz Biplane Association

Just as a follow-on to your first question, I thought I'd elaborate on how I approached building the fuselage sides. I chose to cut, bend, fit all the tubes for both side of the fuselage before tack welding anything. I made two of each piece in advance in the hopes of saving myself some time overall. So I cut the two top longerons, then the bottom ones (and bent them), then placed one top & bottom longeron in the fuse jig and proceeded to cut and fit two each of the side pieces until I had everything ready and then went about tacking up each side. I took a similar approach when standing up the sides and cutting the cross members for the top & bottom.

After you have figured out the measurements and angles for each piece, set up the tubing cutter, and cut one to fit, it doesn't take that much longer to do the second one.

1. I bent both lower longerons prior to installing any of the cross members. I wanted to be sure I had identical longerons for both left & right so I bent them before cutting any verticals or diagonals. I then matched up the left & right pieces and put some witness marks on with a silver pencil so when it came time to stand up the left & right fuselage side and begin installing cross members, I knew I had proper alignment left & right.

2. These are installed on both side of the fuselage. While the plans don't call for anything specific to be mounted to those on the right side, they have been used to mount switches, circuit breakers, armrests, small storage compartments, etc. BTW, I still have not installed these yet, only cut the pieces to fit. You end up doing a lot of reaching in, around, and under things as you add pieces to the fuselage like seats, floorboard mounts, torque tube mounts, etc. By leaving these pieces for last I've given myself room to put my head & shoulders through when welding. More than once I've thanked myself for doing so.

In the spirit of conserving recycled electrons, here is a couple of questions in one post:

1. regarding the bends in station 23.0 and 82.5: Did you make these 9.9 and 7.2 degree bends before tack-welding the diagonal members between these stations, or after?

2. Regarding the horizontal 1/2X1/2 square tubing that the throttle control connects to on the left side of the fuselage, I saw in some builder's pictures that they mirrored these on the right side of the fuselage.Was that the intention of sheet 11, or do these two pieces of square tubing only need to be done on the left side?

Thanks,
Amit.