ORIGINAL: wsmalley
With regard to the shafts, I may wind up with steel, and may even go to larger ID bearings. I'm starting with 3 telescoping thicknesses of brass tube. The idea there was to solder a perpindicular piece on the end like a 'T' so there is no movement. I could, of course, weld steel but it would be more difficult to have bolts/screws. Right now I'm wrestling with how, or whether, to gang 2 servos together for each taileron-and getting the rudder servo(s) in there too. I like things to 'bolt' together rather than rely on glue for high stress parts. I have considered using all my electronic gear for the fun of it to essentially build a UAV. Have color cam Tx/Rx, a BTA-06 auto pilot and the PDC10 device which couples to a a gps into which you program waypoints. Of course with a 6 minute fuel supply you ain't goin' too far! I like the electrics and certainly the EDF's have come a long way recently. I've seen your site before-very nice planes. At the same time, I am 'finishing up' a Skyray and 4 prop jobs- 2 seaplanes, a Cub and a Storch. Man's got to have his priorities in order!
It sounds like you're talking about putting the 'T' into the stab. This should work fine or you could cross-drill the shaft and run the cross-pin through the shaft.
I'm not sure where on the stab's MAC the pivot point lies, but if it's anywhere from 20-25%, then I'm not sure you'll need 2 servos per elevator side. The aerodynamic balance is pretty effective.
I had a chance to fly a prospective USMC UAV basic trainer (zagi w/color cam) and it was pretty cool.
Thanks. I'm currently building one of the Flanker variants, the Su-27IB Platypus using a conversion kit I designed for our Su-27 kit and I just converted my old glow-powered Pilot Decathlon .40 to electric power, so I know what you mean by priorities.
Dan