Jessie, all modifications made to existing designs need to go back through the review process. Having said that, I thought someone was granted approval of the polecat with a modified fin. I believe it was the guys in Canada. Perhaps Roy or Randy Smith would know. Actually Jim Allen would know as well.splatt wrote: @Dan, I have some PoleCats where the tail is a bit tiny. I remember you saying there is exception or rule addition to the Polecat where I can add some height to the vertical stab. Can you detail that again ? something about adding another 3/16" of height ?
The PoleCats I have, I think are from Bruce and the wing has 6 hold down bolts. 2 big 1/4x20 bolts right in the middle , 4 10x24's at the front and back and has a 1.5 spinner
Just a quick note as to why the fin is what it is on the original Polecat/Loki from Bruce. When I carved the plug for the fuselage we didn't have plans for a composite tail. I had originally designed the airplane to use a Lyle wing with wood tails. Lyle being the salesman that he is, kept raising the price for the wings, which drove me to find a different solution. I bought an El Bandito from Bruce which used his Sweet Pea wing. The El Bandito was designed by Jarett Cangie (SP). It was the first airplane I saw with an engine cover similar to what is common today. The airplane was fast, but a little tricky to take off. I decided to update my Polecat plug to use this wing and steal Jarett's cowl concept. Well somewhere along the way Bruce sent me a composite stab which had a much wider chord at the root and was much shorter than what I originally carved the fuselage for. So... I modified the plug to fit. In doing so I had to change the shape of the fin. I needed to make the base much wider to accommodate the short fat stab. Me in my infinite wisdom thought that AREA is what governed stability. So I chopped off the top of my existing fin based on how much area I needed to add to the base to match the new stab. In the end this wasn't too smart. Jim Allen and I had many discussions about this and he was confident that due to the turtle deck the height of the fin is what granted stability. STOOPID, on my part. Fast forward a little, Jerry Small developed the removable stabs and designed the cross over bar that everyone is using (Dub Jett made the idea come to life, as Dub was the one that did the work to make the aluminum cross over a reality) and the fuselage plug was updated again. I loved the polecat, but in thin air and the small surfaces I was told it was a handful. When I made the LOKI for Bruce I added about 3/8" of height to the fin and some more area to the leading edge. I flew the LOKI for many years and never had any issues, I never had any issues with the polecat either but others did and complained about the take offs. So be it. More info than you wanted but... I am sure someone will comment on the taller fin and it's effect as well as any approval that may have been granted. I have no clue what size fin is present on the SuperCat. All the mods to the Polecat that changed it to the SuperCat were done by Steve Taylor.
DK
