Marcos_Nieto

Hi guys..............I´m building a plane with huge ailerons, rudder and elev. and the manufacturer recommends that all surfaces hinge gap be sealed. Some gays out there recommend to do this using packing transparent tape but the V shaped groove makes it hard to tape it. Is there any technique or hint that makes life easier when sealing this gaps?? Any help welcome
Thanks
Marcos

ColinM

Yup, I do this with most of my planes on the ailerons and tailplane, but don't normally bother with the rudder but there's no reason why you can't do that too.

I assume from how you've described it that your surfaces are center hinged? OK, no trouble at all. Take the wing as an example. Hinge the aileron as normal. Now turn the wing upside down and bend the aileron away from you downwards, so effectively pulling the aileron towards the top wing surface so you've got as much of a flat surface in the join as you can get.

Now using Scotch Magic tape or diamond tape or any good quality transparent sticky tape, run a line of the tape from tip to root along the gap carefully making sure that it's straight and forms a good shape and conforms to the wing t\e and aileron l\e nicely. Trim off any excess, work the aileron up and down a few times and make sure it's all nicely stuck and the jobs done. Doesn't take more than 5 minutes. Make sure the surfacers are grease and oil free before you start, a wipe over with acetone works wonders here, and if you make a mistake with the first go, either take it off and start again, or cut it and put an overlapping piece in. In reality it's one of those jobs that's better to have an extra pair of hands to help with, but since it's so quick to do, your wife\girlfriend won't get too tickled off at having to help you

Well worth doing, IMHO. It cleans up the airflow and helps reduce flutter.