For those who have read my build reports or watched my walkaround videos, you know I normally reinforce the back side of my elevon hinges with transparent duct tape. I used to only do this on planes equipped with the NTM Prop Drive 2700 motor as I knew I would need the extra strength. But as a precaution, on many of my recent planes even with the Focal Price 2700 motor, I have been doing this also.
However, for some reason, I didn't do this on my current modified Su35 MK2. This is a picture when the "paint job" (just magic marker actually... :/ ) actually looked pretty good... :)
And here she is the veteran of 150 flights... :)
Since I am retired and have a serious addiction to park jet flying (hello, my name is Scott and I am a Migaholic... :/), I push my planes pretty hard and fly about 30-40 flights a week on average. Therefore I probably "wear out" certain things on my planes faster than most folks might and need to compensate accordingly.
What I noticed the other day at the field was that my elevons looked a little sloppy as I did my pre flight checks. So on closer inspection, I realized that the fiberglass drywall tape was starting to lift a bit off the wing plate of the plane on both sides, probably about a half inch along the hinge and about 1/4" in towards the front of the plane. I guess since it was a testbed plane maybe I never thought I would fly it this long or this often, but I have... :) It was the first testbed plane that I worked on with Stephan when we started sharing ideas and has helped me see the "proof of concept" on many new ideas. Although I am building another soon with some more NAMC mods, it will still be around for a while.... :)
In the picture above, the pen is pointing to the area of weakness. It makes sense as the elevons get a lot of torsional twist throughout a large portion of the flight.
So I added a little more Foam Tac in the weakened area and put some transparent duct tape along the bottom/bevelled area of the hinge and it is once again rock solid and ready for another 150 flights... :)
Since I can't seem to get 3M Extreme Packing Tape here in Canada, I have been using this Scotch brand transparent duct tape that I can get at Home Depot. I find it better than the "Duck" brand of duct tape as the adhesive seems to stick better to foam and it has more fiber reinforcement running through the tape.
Anyway, lesson learned is from now on regardless of the motor, I will remember to reinforce the bevelled side of my elevon hinges from now on. For probably no more than a gram of weight and about 6-8 inches of transparent duct tape, it is well worth it. My Mig29 V4 was reinforced like this and has almost 150 flights on it and the elevon hinge is as solid as the day I built it... :).
Well, sun is shining, best get out and get some more flying done!
Cheers,
Scott
LOL. The only hinges I've had to reinforce were loose from crashing! For my backyard Edges I use Blenderm tape for the hinges on the top and bottom. I bought a case of twelve off of eBay so it's what I use on the bottom hinge on my park jets. Top hinge I use the fiberglass tape.
ReplyDeleteWay you're flying Scott, you going to be in the Giunness Book!
Stephan
LOL...not sure about the Guiness Book, but I'll try my best! Maybe as the weather gets cooler in the fall I'll have a marathon flying day and see how many flights I can get done in one day... :) My record now is 18 flights in a day, so that shouldn't be too tough to beat when the weather is a bit more comfortable. It has been pretty toasty here lately, temps up around 88 F/31C, so I have had to shorten my flights by about 30 secs or so as the batteries seem to discharge a lot quicker when it is hot.
DeleteI have used the Blenderm tape on EPP planes I have built in the past, good stuff also... :)
Only got 7 flights in today, had to cut the grass at the airfield today before the long weekend, Monday is a Civic Holiday across Canada except in Quebec, so I'm sure the field will be busy for the next three days... :)
Cheers,
Scott