Originally Posted by
RICKSTUBBZ
FI OKC--- you just hit the head of the nail with that one!
With out a doubt the wood of an air frame will move much more than the control rods. Albeit humidity and not temp. But as we know with temp changes there are almost always humidity changes.
A few years back, I toted several of my planes from the south east Texas area up and out to Las Vegas. When I left Texas all of the covering on those planes was tight! When I pulled them out of the "crossover" in Vegas i was all but embarrassed for my friends to see the things. They were more more saggy than grandma's chin.... Now while in Vegas, I was too lazy to drag out the iron and heat gun. Anyway, long story short - by the time I unloaded them back in Texas the skin was tight......That my friend, was all wood shrink in the dry air, and swell by the time I got them back here.
The same thing happens when you bring your airframes indoor in the winter when you live in a climate that is humid in the summer & cold in the winter.
Heating the air in the house drops the humidity & shrinks the wood. I've seen the exact opposite when a wood gun stock is finished indoors in the winter. As summer comes along the wood will swell and the wood that you so carefully sanded flush with the metal will be standing proud by several as much as 1/32 of an inch.