GW

My Feedback: (2)

Ok guys, heres another one I need advice on.

The tail section of this aircraft (horiz and vert) are just sheet balsa. I was thinking it would not be very crash resistant at all and would be a highly replaced part or parts.

Question is: What would it hurt to replace this with framed up 1/4 inch balsa? I realize it would be thicker but would anything else really cause problems?

Thanks

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

Watch the weight, a tiny bit extra weight in the tail wil cause you to add 3~4 times that in the nose to offset it.

Campgems

The weight is something to question. The other thing is that I have a number of tail feathers from crashed planes. They are seldom damaged in a crash. Fuselage and wings take a beating, but the tail seems to be almost immune to crash damage. I have a fuselage, well part of it from a crash some years back that broke the motor into little pieces. I'm thinking about repairing the fuselage and making a new wing for it. The tail is as good as the day I built it.

By the time a crash gets to the tail, there just isn't enough up front left to salvage. Build it as designed and fly it..

Don

ARUP

I framed up tailfeathers on a SIG 4*40 and a BUSA Stick 40 a few years ago instead of using the sheeted items. Lighter than origional. Build to fly, not to crash!

Zor

Hello GW,

Some comments and analysis,

A framed up tail is lighter than a complete sheet of balsa even when using harder balsa as should be.
So weight saving is an advantage.

Anoher advantage is a stronger tail (more crash resistant) due to the fact that a single full sheet can easily break along the grain. In a framed up tail some of the wood grain is in both direction.

To make myself clear, I am building a sailpane right now and the elevator is (originally) a full size sheet of pretty soft balsa (as supplied in the kit) 3/16" thick and the areas is 21" long and 1 1/2" chord.

It could easily break along a wingspan line as the grain is spanwise.

I will modify this elevator by making large cut outs and gluing on top and underneath some strips of hard balsa about 1 /16" thick and 3/8" wide 90 degrees with the elevator grain. (in other words, parallel to the longitudinal axis of the model). Something a bit like ribs and sand them to a symmetrical airfoil shape.

So go right ahead and do what you were (are) thinking.

Zor

P.S.: by editing ___
Cover your model wih tear resistant material that is solidly glued (adkered to) the atructure.
Some materials have weak adherance to the structure and in a crash the adherance fails and the covering tears easily thus not providing strength against damages.

flygilmore

I do not like solid balsa tail feathers. As mentioned they are very weak and usually very heavy. Framed up tails are the only way to go! If you need the solid look you can always use smaller stick stock and then sheet the built up section with anything from 1/32"-1/8" depending on size of model of course.