Ho Malone
Posts: 40
Joined: 2/11/2005
From: Rogers, AR, USA
Status: offline
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Here is what I know as of today: If the carbon fiber tail rod is broken in two, but still firmly attached in the fuselage, You might try patching the tw o broken pieces back together with a piecr of 1/4 inch aluminum tubing. You can find it at Hobby Lobby, or maybe some other source. It is made by K & S Engenering and comes in 2 12" legnths for about @2.00. Or maybe you might have some old windchimes around with 1/4 aluminum tubes. The will slide right over the existing carbon fiber tubes on the plane. When you are sure of their alignment, I advise a hot glue gun for the bond. Be sure to cut off a long enough patch piece to make the bond rigid.
If you have to drill a new hole for the control lines, be sure and make it large enough fot easy movement of the lines. If you drill a new hole, drill it on a slant towards the fuselage to insure it doesn't bind in the traverse up to the control arms on the tail wing. 25 lb fishilg line works fine. It is cheap, so if you replace the existing lines, cut off 2 good 3 foot pieces to allow yourself plent of slack to work with. If you do replace the existing lines, you will quickly see that is is much much easier to feed them from you newly drilled hole up to the fuselage than vise versa. I had difficulty getting the antenna line treaded back thru the tail rod hole, so I just poked a hole in the bottom of the fuselage and spot tapped it to the tail rod back to the end of the tail rod. I would advise younot alter the legnth of the antenna line, as it may affect the servo reception.
If you replace the control lines, you will need to remove the servo unit. 4 screws on the bottom of the fuselage. Pay close attentention to where everything is and how the control lines threat thru the servo base and position on the servo arms.
I tried today to replace my entire carbon fiber tube with the aluminum tubes I bouhgt from hobby lobby. The 1/4" tubes are too big to fit into the fuselage, but just the right size for the original carbon rods to slide into. The 7/32 aluminum tubes are the same diamater as the original carbon fiber rod, but not as strong, I found that out on my first experiment flight. The 7/32 aluminum tubes bend way way to easily upon impact.
I have an order on the way from MIDWESTPRODUCTS.COM. I order some carbon fiber tubes from them. About $12.00 for 24 inches of .210 outside diameter tubes. I will try them for tail rod replacements. I expect them to arrive this week. I will give you all a report when I test them out.
I have left some other post here about securing the tailrod into the fuselage pod. I few minutes with some heavy thread or dental floss and a large needle to cinch the carbon fiber rod securely into the little cradle inside the fuselage wil save you from the frustration of nosediving upon take off when that poorly spot glued manufacturing flaw pops out of place.
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RE: bought a firebird scout, good looking plane - 
RE: bought a firebird scout, good looking plane - 