Time to update.
I have run in to some problems with the flap hinge fairings.
The hinges are glued in place a long time ago and now it was time to fit the fairings.
The fairings are 2 big for the center hinge and 4 small for the outer and inner hinge.
The hinges have recesses that rest on the wing skin surface, so how deep they will go is given. The hinges are 45,7 mm high.
The big fairings fit with 1 mm of clearance (after dremeling out a lot of glue on the inside) and are about 45,7 mm high also. No problem.
Problem is that the small fairings are much too small. The 4 small fairings range from 38-40 mm deep and have no way of fitting and makes a big gap between wing and fairing.
I have contacted SM about this and told them that I want 4 more big fairings that will cover the hinges. OK - not scale, but it will fix the problem.
The reply from SM was to send me 4 new hinges that is supposed to be smaller.
I told them that the hinges was glued in place with plenty of Hysol, so taking them out was not and option, and that I wanted 4 BIG fairings.
Then I get a mail from Morne:
"Sorry for the problem with the hinges. After SM change to carbon hinges i should have modified the manual....
The hinges are too long. You will need to cut them shorter then fit to fairing and then check operation.
If happy then only glue to wing. It looks like all your hinge pivot points are same high. The ones on the sides should be lower to fit fairing. Also trim front and back to fit the fairing.
If you damaged the hinges when taking them out – we will send new hinges..."
What...? Hinge pivot points are not supposed to be in a line, but high up in the center and lower on the inner and outer side... i my book that would make the flap pretty un-movable.
My reply:
"The hinges are glued in place with plenty of hysol, so removing them is not an option.
And how could the flap move if the pivot points are not lined up? I thought lining up the pivot points are essential for free movement.
I want fairings that fit. Easy as that. The big ones in the center fit, and I can live with that it is not excact scale. I would need 4 big fairings.
As I said; spending lots of hours and making a mess on the wings taking out the hinges is not an option!"
Morne replies:
"OK We send new big farings"
Now we are talking
Then I get this mail from John:
Can we send you four smaller fairings and four new hinges? They fit well here.
Now I get a little frustrated. What part of that
"the hinges ARE GLUED IN PLACE" and
"taking them out is NOT AN OPTION" don't the understand??
All I want is to have 4 BIG FAIRINGS and this whole problem goes away...
I sent this reply, hoping it will be OK now:
"John.
Please understand. The hinges are allready glued in place so I can't take them out.
So i need 4 LARGE fairings."
Seem to some language problems or something.
The hinges are probably different now from the ones I got.
Either way... The hinges are too big, or the fairings are too small. The best and quickest fix is to just install 4 LARGE fairings and everything will be OK.
Hoping it will work out now
Other Hawk owners: What is your experience with the hinges and fairings??
