Stiffening the Night Radian with 2 grams

The Night Radian fuselage twists left and right and is OK. But if you are used to stiffer foamy motorglider fuselages like the Multiplex or Flyzone designs then here is an alternative to clear or fiberglass tape. Materials needed are 1/64” thick plywood and Loctite Plastic Mender epoxy. Midwest Products sells 1/64 x 12 x 24” via Amazon for $24.61 and can last a long time for strong lightweight reinforcement projects. A 16” long x 25 mm wide piece is all you need for reinforcement. A box cutter slices the fuselage about 11 mm deep at the tail end and 25 mm deep at the thick fuselage end.

Place a straight edge on one side of the fuselage (see pic) and use a box cutter to make multiple cuts or slices deep into the fuselage. You don’t have to go all the way through to the other side. Measure the cut to 11 and 25 mm deep. Fit the ply into the slot and push in as far as you can go. Mark the excess sticking out and cut just inside the marked line. This will ensure the ply is not outside the soft foam but insides. Any mark or slot can be filled with lightweight modeling sparkling putty. Since CA needs air to dry and there will be very little air at this joint use Loctite Plastic Epoxy as this will harden without any air to the joint. The epoxy will also give you plenty of time to position the plywood unlike CA that can harden in a few seconds. I weighed the plywood before epoxy and it was 1 gram. I smeared epoxy on both sides of the ply but did not weigh it. I estimate the epoxy at 1 gram for a total of about 2 grams weight. I usually use 3M 20 or 40 X clear packing tape know that this would weigh more if wrapped around the fuselage area. My fuselage had a slight left twist that required right rudder trim. After the plywood was inserted into the sliced fuselage I used the clear tape to pull the fuselage into an opposite twist to counter the warped fuselage.