Leveling the Fuselage

Leveling the Fuselage

If you wanna fly straight, you gotta build level...

While leveling the fuselage is a pretty mundane task, it is critically important.  That being said, I did deviate from the manual, in favor of a much more accurate (and modern) method approach.

 Leveling laterally, was easy enough, just using a pair of long levels.

 Despite what it looks like, the two actually are level.


Now for the long axis.

The manual has you building a 20' long water level and using that.  Yeah, that was a great work around 30 years ago; however, today, there's a better way...

The laser level!

Setting the laser level up on a table, a few inches above the fuselage flange.  It did take several minutes to get the laser line perfectly up the center of the fuselage, but then it was all smooth sailing.

Once the laser line was running perfectly down the center of the fuselage, I decided to kill two birds with one stone.  It was a perfect line to trace down the center line of the fuselage.  I initially tried the string and plum bob method, but could not get it accurate enough for my liking.

Then using a modification of the engineer method of leveling...

I put a ruler on the leveling points front and back and leveled till each side read the same.

I couldn't quite get everything straight, and take my own picture of the front, but it shows the concept.

Because this is an SE fuselage, the rear level point is the bottom center of the "V".  In order to get the ruler at the correct level, you have to twist it slightly; otherwise, the width of the ruler holds it up a little above the level point.

Using this method, I was able to get an accuracy of about 1/64", or so.  Not perfect, but plenty close enough for building a Velocity.

I could use the same technique to level the fuselage side to side; however, without designated leveling points on the sides, I preferred to use the levels.  

Lastly, I put two pair of spirit levels inside the fuselage, one pair on each side.  Now, I can check the levelness, from either side, at a quick glance.

Preparations are complete....  Time to build!!!