AndyAndrews

See the attached picture. This is the area on the F-16 that the Hstabs plug into. There is a 1/2" gap between the fiberglass outer skin and the bracket that the stab plugs into. Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't This seem a little odd? On my other F-16 the connection point is solid. How in the world do they expect to be able to tighten down on the clamp if only one side is secure and the other is simply tensioned by the outer skin? I don't like this at all. If left the way it is the washers between the stabs and the fuse will eventually break through the skin and cause the rod to push in further, potentially causing the inner bearing to fall off and then the whole thing becomes unstable. I mean.. really skymaster?

Looks like I am going to have to cut into this area and put some ply behind it so I have a firm mount to put some spacers to separate the stab from the fuse so it won't cave in under tension.

One other thing, the stab mounting brackets are on a former that is not perpendicular to the fuse. This causes the stabs to not be parallel to the fuse requiring a bigger gap between the stabs and the fuse than I like or the leading edge of the stabs drag on the fuse. I'm very disappointed in this.

Andy

dubd

Really hope Skymaster addresses this for future planes.

Mark H

Hi Andy,
Oh I didn't have the out of alignment problem, I did how ever, have the spacer problem , I cured this by opening up the hole in the glass fus then made spacers up out of plastic tube slide these on to the stab spars ,so these ran against the inner race of the bearing to the stab . It took a bit of trial and cut to fit. I also made up another inside so the arm on the stab horn ran the same way. In the end mine all worked with no binding and the servos work with little load...
I know how you feel, these things on a Multi $ aircraft should be right from factory. The flying always seems to take away the pains of the build. :-)

icepilot

Anton - will you please make sure that this is corrected on the F-16's that are headed for Norway soon?

FalconWings

My Feedback: (57)

I thought Skymaster was the one that did all the testing and research.....
Really?

AndyAndrews

I really was shocked to see this since this is the generation II and my generation I is done right in that area.

FalconWings

My Feedback: (57)

well Andy if you are sure there is an alignment issue, I would just take the wood base out with the bracket, fix all the issues and make a new mounting frame. Perhaps you may be able to avoid cutting the fiberglass, which would require refinishing (which would suck).

readyturn

My Feedback: (9)

Gee, how about Skymasster just replacing the bad part ? Novel concept, do the job right !

Rick

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Why settle for second best, when you deserve the best... Especially for what this thing costs

FenderBean

[:-] hmmm

AndyAndrews

I'm waiting to hear from them on how they want to handle this. I could fix it myself but if I do I expect a $$ reimbursement for doing the work they should have done at the factory. I'm not holding my breath lol.

Andy

johnzqh

Hi Andy

There should have been two brass tubes with 2 washers supplied in accessory bag.Each brass tube is to be sit against the bracket and inner fiberglass side of fuselage(in between brakcet and fuselage).Please check the accessories again.If not found,we will send them to you asap.In the future,we will consider to mount brass tubes inside at factory.
Best regards


John
Skymaster/X-treme/Skyemaster