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Old 01-10-2005 | 09:04 PM
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ez2bgman
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From: Harvey, LA
Default RE: Vectorflight Edge 540 build

[[/quote]

I have just 2 extremely brief flights on mine, and the gap at the Trailing edge kind of concerned me before flying. The 2 brief flights were without incident, but it don't seem like a whole lot of dowl holdin on the wing back there. The only thing that bothers me about drawing it in is I wander what it will do to the handling of the Plane. Maybe it won't hurt anything, but to draw it in each side 1/8"-1/4" it will change the Horizontal Plane Angle of the wings some.[/quote]

I had no gap to start with. If you scroll back to one of my early posts on the first page, there is a pic there of the gapless wing/fuselage joint. You could take a 66" long straight edge and line up my leading edges. I just didn't want any gap to develop from the stresses these planes will be put through during hard aerobatics.

Here are some pics of the nylon bolt mod that I did to hold the trailing edge in tight. It didn't take much time and next to nothing in cost to do it. I used 1/2" dowel and cut 2 pieces an inch in length. I then drilled and tapped it for 1/4-20 nylon bolts. I then located an area about an inch behind the dowel for the wing and drilled it out to accept the 1/2" dowel. Before I drilled the 1/2" hole, I drilled a starter hole with a 1/8" bit. Stuck a small piece of toothpick in it and slid the wings into position. The toothpick marked the spot on the fuselage for the nylon bolt to pass through. This way there was no guessing or complicated measurements to make. After this step, I drilled the 1/2" hole in the root rib for the threaded dowel. I applied some Elmers Wood Glue and inserted the dowel flush with the root rib. The fit was just snug enough that I had to lightly tap it in. I then applied thin CA to the dowel face and threads. I drilled the holes in the fuselage for the 1/4-20 nylon bolts. I then made two plywood doublers and epoxied them inside the fuselage over the hole for the nylon bolts for added strength. I probably didn't need the doublers, but as they say "better to have and not need, than to need and not have..." Now there is nothing short of full contact with the ground that can cause my wings to develop a gap from the fuselage.

Here are a few pics of the belly pan mod that I did too. Actually, it is some pics of the blind nuts in the fuselage.

By the way, you can see an additional hole in the fuselage between the dowel and the nylon bolts. I had originally drill straight through the fuselage side and root rib and just threaded the nylon bolts in. I didn't think the root ribs would be able to handle the stresses. That is when I redid them using the current method.

Hope these tips are useful.

Later and happy flying.
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