After admiring the Czech handiwork (and it does look good), I started trial fitting the various pieces.
The wing root does not seem to be fitting perfectly. At the TE there is a gap of about 1mm.
I'm not sure yet whether to sand the LE root or put in a balsa shim.

Putting that problem to the side for the moment, I located the servo circle on each wing.

I carefully cut along the line, and lifted the Coracover. Then I cut the circle in four, and lifted the balsa carefully,
uncovering the foam, and the "wiring straw".

I placed a (GWS Nano-)servo on the circle to test for size. A small bit of the tabs has to come of.

That's better.

In the end I had to cut away a miniscule piece more of the balsa to ensure enough servo arm movement.
Having build and flown foamies till now, I don't think I'll bother building a servo box. I cut out enough foam for a very "tight" fit,
and will use some foamfriendly white glue for final installation.

Next thing on the list: Soldering the servo extension wires.

Change of plan!

After discussing the servo placement in the wing on www.RCGroups.com, and with my LHS, I've decided to "pot" the servos.
"Potting" is basically taking out a generous amount of foam, wrapping the servo in clingfilm, dumping a fair dollop of epoxy in the opening,
and pressing the servo in place. The idea is that this way the epoxy seeps into the foam, leaving a perfect fit pocket for the servo.
When the epoxy is set, you take out the servo, take off the clingfilm and cover the servo either with tape or heatshrink, and glue the servo in the "pot".
Simple, right? Not for cleverdicks here.

On advise of my LHS I mixed equal amounts of 5 minute epoxy with soda bicarbonate. This would give a good strong solid servo base.
What the LHS forgot to tell me, was that with soda bicarb 5 minute epoxy turns into 30 second epoxy!
OK, so I exaggerate. But it was b***dy fast! In the panic of releasing the servo I also cut one of the servo wires. Grrr.

Anyway, so here is the totally emptied out servobay.

I taped the borders of the servobay with masking tape, and then covered the wing with a sheet of greaseproof paper with a hole in the middle.

The glue mix.

After pouring in the epoxy/soda mixture I realised the much faster rate of setting, so a hectic few minutes
where spend cutting out the servo. A lot of swearing under the breath later, I did have a perfect servo pot.
The piece of masking tape with the pencil line on it is to indicate the servo/aileron line,
to be able to get the servo in at right angles with the aileron (to get the pushrod at right angles with the aileron).

Servo ready for taping and glueing in. Right after I have repaired the cut wiring...

Knowing my expertise (or lack thereof) to get holes exactly in the right spot, after measuring 75 times
from diferent angles and finally deciding I had the pencil marks in the right spot,
I used a hot nail to put a small indentation where the wingdowel holes have to be.

After the hot nail, I first hand drilled a 1mm hole, and only then used my
electric drill for the 3mm hole. With a round file I slightly enlarged the hole, and to get a nice even finish.

Now the wing.
I put the wing halves together, and put it in the wingsaddle with the LE all the way in,
and making sure the wing root was perfectly aligned with the middle of the fuse.
Then I marked the hole position on the LE through the cockpit.
Again, a 1mm hand drilled hole first.

Followed by a 2mm hand drilled hole, followed by the electric drill for
the final 4mm hole needed.

I taped the wings together (no particular reason realy, it just looks cool) and taped the
LE where the dowel holes are. I then glued in the dowels (Just over 2/3 in the wing) with my now infamous epoxy and soda bicarb mixture.
When the epoxy has set, I can take of the masking tape and will have a nice clean LE.

This is how the LE will fit on the wing saddle.

And a view of a 2 meter wing on my work table (also sometimes called diningroom table)

Now we get to some of the more dreaded part. Soldering.
I cut & stripped the servowire, and stripped the extension wire. That was the easy part.
I tried to make a nice clean solder connection, but as you can see, it didn't go to smoothly...

But with a bit of sweat & patience I got it done. However, take a good look at the servo.
Does that look like a wing servo to you? (hint, hint)
Scroll back up and have a good look...

I cut and soldered one of the V-tail servos. Grrrr. The wing servos had the tab cut of.
So, in an intense state of anger, I was ready to throw the whole thing across the room. Luckily I recently
finished an anger management course... Took the whole thing to my LHS, where the damage was repaired,
and I was shown the "correct & simple way" to do this job.

So this is the servo side done:

And after pushing the extension wire through the wing tube and soldering that part,
here is the wingroot side:

Then ofcourse the tense moment, does it work?

And it did. Phew!

After that, doing the V-tail servo tray was a breeze. I enlarged the holes for the servos,
and trial fitted them including screwing in the screws. I then sprinkled some thin CA
on the edges and the screwholes to add some strength to the ply.

And screwed the servos in.

Another dreaded part was fitting the firewall. Again I went to my LHS, and he CA'd the firewall in for me.
At home I 5 minute epoxied the wall on the inside of the fuse, and let it cure overnight.
I then screwed in the motor, to see how the fit was.

I'll need to do some serious sanding here.

As good as done.

And now the wing: First I taped the wing together tightly (top & bottom) and fit it into the wingsaddle,
making sure it was as far forward as possible, and then taped it in place.

I then taped a piece of string to the tail, to measure tail/wingtip distance.

Once I was satisfied that the wing was properly centered (left and right wingtip equal distance from tail),
I taped the TE in place.

I marked the hole position, and drilled the two holes. (TIP: Instead of using a drill, I fit a round,
sharp-tipped file into my drill. Much easier!)

I then sanded the supplied ply wingsupport to size, drilled two 6mm holes,
and CA'd the blind nuts in place.

Before glueing the hold down plywood plate in place, I wanted to put some Vaseline or Petroleum Jelly in the holes,
so any epoxy finding it's evil way into the holes wouldn't hold. Searching high and low throughout the appartment, I couldn't find either.
Than a brilliant idea from my wife; why not drip some candle wax into the holes? Why not indeed?
I taped of the ply plate, punched holes in the tape and held a burning candle over the holes. Done!
Now, when the plate is in place, I only need to carefully push out the wax! Brilliant, isn't it?
After this, I epoxied the plate in place and put on a clothpin to keep it in place.
Here a pic from inside the fuse.

I had some epoxy left, so I decided to also glue in the front lip of the canopy hold-down.

And then let it all rest for the night.

The next day I poored hot water over the bolt holes, to melt the candlewax, and let it run out of the tail.
(Making sure the nose was up all the time, seeing as there was a AXI 2820/10 motor in the nose...)

Then a minor problem occured. (MINOR?)

Or at least, I thought there had.

When putting the wing into the wingsaddle, and aligning the holes to put the plastic bolts through
the holes wouldn't line up, and the bolts didn't fit!

OK. Calm down... Have a drink...

Have another drink...

After carefull observations and several deep breaths, I found that if I put the right bolt in first, the left one
will go in without a problem...
For a moment there I saw myself in the LHS with the entire staff and customers around me
all sadly shaking there heads (or worse, all sadly smiling) in unison "Yep. We have to cut it out. Hand me that hacksaw..."

TAIL TIME!

I sort of dreaded this part (as well). Get this wrong, and your plane will fly like
a pregnant duck. Or one of those piglets in my RCGroups Avatar.

The keyword here was "preperation"
I cut away 2mm wide Oracover from the tailplane's inside. Trial fitted the V, marked the area
inside the tailsaddle, and removed that part of the Oracover as well.

I then cut out from cardboard a few pieces at 35 degrees angle, and at 110 degrees. The idea was
to make a jig at the correct angle and rest the V in there to cure. Nice idea, but the 35 degree angled pieces kept moving.

I abandoned the jig-a-ma-thing, and taped the tips together, using the 110 degree template to get the right angle,
resting the V on a piece of greaseproof paper, and keeping it balanced with two glasses.
You can barely make out the clear tape I used in this picture.

When that epoxy had set, I made up another small batch and mixed in an equal amount of soda bicarbonate.
I carefully poured a bit of this mixture into the V, where I had removed the 2mm Oracover.

As mentioned in the instructions, I wet-sanded the V-tail saddle with 360 paper, dried it, and then
rough sanded it lightly again. I cleaned it with some alcohol. I attached the wings to the fuse,
and placed the fuse & wings on the table, as level as possible. I placed some weights on the ensemble
to make sure it wouldn't shift easily.

I mixed a batch of epoxy and coated the V-tail saddle and the V-tail itself (where I had removed the Oracover).
When the epoxy became tacky I placed the V-tail on the fuse, and "fixed" it with some tape attached from
each tip to the table. Then I weighted that down as well with the Panasonic battery pack.

The moment of truth; to see if I would have to put the V-tail servos in the tail to reach the CG, I placed
all components in the fuse. The V-tail servotray furthest back. Then the Rx pack on top of the flight pack,
and then the ESC.

Well, waddaya know? CG comes out at 65mm! I reccon if I put the Rx pack behind the servos,
and the Rx behind that I'll be OK.

Haven't done much the past few days. Had a blast with my Unicorn though. 3 twenty minute flights
with almost no motor use in a flat field! Yeah!!!
Visited my LHS for some advice on the various tasks ahead, and let him have a
look at what I've done till now. But back to work.

I carefully removed some of the Oracover on the ailerons and CA'ed the horns in place.

Took a deep breath and managed to solder the clevises to the pushrods without making too much of a mess.
I will now have to set the servo arms at a 20 degree angle forward, glue the servos in place,
and attached the pushrod with a "Z" bend to the servo arm.

The folding prop didn't move very freely, so I carefully sanded the bases of the prop, and fixed the prop screws
with some of my daughters nail polish ( a cheap and just as good "lock-tite" replacement).

At the LHS we noticed there was only hingetape on the top of the V-tail, so I folded the ruddervators up,
and put some tape on the inside.

Changed my mind. Again. I've decided to keep the servos under the wing, but made a new
servotray with the servos in one hole in the middle. (Also because I screwed it up again,
and I had narrowed the original servotray about 5mm too much... Don't ask.)
Anyway, this looks much better.
I made the new tray out of 2mm light ply with a sliver of ply across for extra strength, and for the servoscrews to "bite" into.
Then I sanded the tray carefully (we don't want to have to make yet another servotray) for
a comfortable fit. I also sanded & cleaned the inside of the fuse. I then spot glued the tray in place with some medium CA
(with the servos in place), and when that had dried, I applied some epoxy to the ply/fuse connection.

NEWSFLASH
Only two days left till my target date for the maiden flight! I've decided to postpone the maiden flight to next Friday.
Still too much to do, and too little time to do it in. Unless I work till three/four o'clock in the morning.
I want to enjoy this build, and not hurry. So with the postponement the pressure is of,
and I can continue building in a relaxed atmosphere.

Placing the v-tail control horns was a bit of a head-scratcher. The way I've put them will give the minimal
chance of binding, provided I cut away some polyester. I did find that the supplied pushrods
are far to flimsy and flexible. They won't even fit in the EZ-connectors!
A trip to the LHS is in order...

To keep the three motor wires out of harms' way I drilled two tiny holes in the fuse. A small tiewrap is inserted,
and pulled over a plastic tab. I am going to put some fibertape on the fuse's landing area anyway, so you wil hardly notice it.

I put the fuse aside, and focused some more on the wings. I passed my iron over the very few wrinkles in the Oracover I could find,
and the few parts of covering on the TE that were coming loose.
The white line on the wings' base is the measured CG. The front of the line is 70mm, and the back is 76mm from the LE.

In keeping with tradition (see my Unicorn and Mini Weasel) I just had to cut out two IAF rondells
in white Oracover, and ironed them on the wings' underside.

To work on the v-tail servos and rods, I found it easier to cut a nose stand out of some foam
so the fuse would not move around so much.

As I mentioned earlier, the provided pushrods don't fit in the EZ-connectors. Then I saw a closeup picture of
the cockpit of a Mini Floh, where the owner had bend the pushrods 180 degrees, and had double pushrods
in the connectors. I copied it and the pushrods fit snug.

To have free movement of the v-tail horns, I positioned them just outside the fuse
and filed away some of the polyester to make room for the pushrods. And before you get your knickers in a twist,
I know I haven't glued the pushrod sleeves in place yet...

I made a very crude jig to keep the fuselage in place, when glueing in the pushrod sleeves in the tail.

With a long applicator, I dropped some medium CA onto the pushrod sleeve. First on one side, with
that side turned down. Waited 15 minutes, and then did the other side.

And the same treatment for the front end. I may put a piece of ply across to keep it all in place.

At the tail end I moistened the area, and dropped in some Gorilla (Polyurethane) Glue.
The foam glue engulfed the pushrod sleeve nicely.

At the front I decided to use epoxy glue mixed with Soda Bicarb
for extra strength (it's that round blob on the left. there's another one just like that on the right).
I tried to push in a piece of ply, but with my sausage fingers I just couldn't get it right.

The idea was to have the Rx and Rx battery behind the servos. So I made a light ply tray
with the fuzzy Velcro bit on the tray, and some hook-bit Velcro on the Rx and battery.

This is how it would go inside the fuse. The antenna I fed through a spare pushrod sleeve.
This way I will not have to shake the fuse violently to get the antenna to the tail.

It turned out that the Rx will not fit in the fuse on the tray. So I think I will borrow
a tried-and-tested method from the Glow Community: foam
I took a square of foam and made a "pocket" in it for the Rx. I will plug in all the wiring,
and then push the Rx into the tail. A piece of balsa and some CA will hold it in place.

The Rx battery will be on the tray just behind the servos.

I set the differential on the aileron servos. As per the instructions, the servo arm's position
in neutral leans forward.

And this is what the interior looks like. From front to back: AXI2820/10, Jeti40 ESC (wedged aside the
Panasonic 8x2200 pack), v-tail servos, Rx battery pack, and out of sight in the tail the Rx.

Call me a sissy, but I don't want to scratch my pristine fuselage just yet.
So I put some fibertape on those areas on the bottom that are most likely to get scratched at any landing.

At the LHS for a checkup. The v-tail servos position are deemed too much in the middle. Simple to fix.
Just take out the servos, file some wood away from the sides and put the servos back in. Also, Shay (LHS owner)claims that
the CG mentioned in the plans makes the plane tail heavy. So the Rx battery will be moved in front of the servo tray. No big deal.
Everything else was fine, so can glue the wing servos in place.

I decided to glue the wing servos with a small drop of Gorilla Glue. It must be a realy small drop because
Gorilla Glue expands 3-4 times it's original size! And you realy don't want the servo and surrounding
wing to be engulfed by rock hard foam...
To make sure the glue would not push the servo up, I weighted it down with some batterypacks.
Curing time of polyurethane glue is at least an hour, so beware!

All that's left to do is tape on the servo cover.

I couldn't resist the urge for one more picture of the whole ensemble.
Don't mind the mess on the table...

Friday = Flyday
Today's the day. I arrived at Arsuf before Shay, so I had time to take some pictures

Pre-flight checks showed too much slop in the v-tail pushrods, so I fashioned a "slop-stopper" from some EPP foam,
and pushed it into the middle of the tail.
And the obligatory pre-maiden pictures. Can you see my hands shaking?

Since I am not a member of the Arsuf Flying Club, I cannot fly there. So Shay did the
maiden flight. I wanted him anyway to do the first one or two flights, to make sure it was dialed in properly.
First flight was uneventfull. CG was slightly too much back (nose heavy), and ruddervator throws were too low.
Disregarding the club rules slightly, Shay handed me the controls for a bit. Words cannot describe the thrill of
flying the Filip 600 Sport! Very much point and go. Put it in a bank, release the controls, and it will turn forever.
Turning into the wind (15-17Mph) Shay warned me to give throttle. I only gave 1/2 throttle, and saw the Filip jump forward.
After landing I raised the pushrods one hole in the control horns. This meant also that some more polyester had
to be filed away to prevent servo stalling.

The second flight was much better. Shay warned me not to throw so hard at launch.
So I held the Filip high, nose in the wind, and waited for Shay to give full throttle.
Literally, a flick of the wrist, and she was on her way!
CG was spot on, and ruddervator was as responsive as it should be.
Shay did some some easy rolls and loops, and nice low flybys. Hearing the "swoosh" on the flyby alone was worth every penny.

Knowing that all's well, and the necessary fine tuning has been done, Filip goes back in the bags.
I will now have to wait till next week to be able to fly her all by myself!