ORIGINAL: jetpilotrich
How did you come up with the location (forward and aft) of where to place the aluminum shaft? The weight and aerodynamic balance of the surface is important.
Rich
I started a thread in the aerodynamics forum to pick their brains on the best method. If you want to check it out: [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4225798/tm.htm]CLICK HERE[/link]. They gave me a little insight and a good place to start, but I wanted to be sure so I broke out the calculator and got to work. My calcs showed it to be in about the same place as suggested. Did some more digging and found the best (and easiest) method by far on [link=http://www.airfieldmodels.com/information_source/math_and_science_of_model_aircraft/formulas/mean_aerodynamic_chord.htm]www.airfieldmodels.com[/link]
Here's a screen shot (Figure 1):
Figure 1
The rod must be placed 20%-25% on MAC to be effective. All three methods above yielded a distance of 4.40 in from the tip of the L.E (Figure 2). I shouldn't need to balance it since the rod will be located 25% on the MAC, but I am anyway just for grins
. What's the point of going to all this trouble to do a half a@#ed job. I then plan to fill in the crevis created by the rod with 30 min epoxy. Lastly, seal the entire stabilator with medium weight fiberglass.
Figure 2