I am curious to know if anybody has had any failures with 'live hinging' such as found on CARF and Skymaster models?
Also I would like to know how exactly how the hinge is constructed. Is the hinge fabric laid up when molding the wing and the hinge line cut later on or is the fabric glued in after the skin is cut along the hinge line?
The reason I ask is I recently had a hinge failure (one elevator half of my L39) after a rough landing. The model was not damaged but one elevator half had parted and hanging loose.
There are lots of models with this hinging, I also have a Eurosport many years old with no sign of wear along the hinge lines, so I assume that this hinging is very good and the failure I experienced was maybe due to a manufacturing error. I lost the L39 later on when it rolled inverted in a turn and then nose dived. At the time I thought probably a tip stall as it was completely unresponsive to any input in the 2 or 3 seconds I had left but examining the wreckage I noticed all the wing hinges had parted but the elevator hinges including the repaired half were still intact. It was a violent arrival and the cause will never be known for sure............Ron