June 2004
Article by Mike Whaley
In the first part of June, we evaluated several options for the turtledeck and ultimately decided on an all aluminum structure which is held together with a combination of rivets and epoxy adhesives. Despite the size of the assembly (it’s a very tall turtledeck compared to many biplanes) it is actually quite lightweight, very strong, and offers a respectable amount of room for storage (of course, the amount that you can store in it will also depend on weight and balance considerations.)
We had to work out a few difficult curves near the fin, and even covered the section around the base of the fin and the rear edge of the turtledeck with fabric a few times to work out both what shape to make the turtledeck and how the fuselage-fin-turtledeck junction would look. It turned out that we just added a simple, sanded wooden filler strip on each side of the base rib of the vertical stabilizer to provide a smooth transition for the fabric between the fuselage, turtledeck, and fin.
