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Old 08-21-2007 | 06:16 AM
  #6  
da Rock
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From: Near Pfafftown NC
Default RE: Building Up Elevator

BTW, the design of the stab is pretty good. If you look at the construction near some of the numbers it's obviously sensible design.

You can see the long brace along the TE of the stab at 2. And the short crosspiece and corner brace coming out at 3. Sensible things to have in a builtup stabilizer.

However, just above 1. you can see where the LE failed immediately outboard of the rib. Truth is, that LE wood should have been hard balsa. A lot of people use holdbacks that bear on the stabs. I do. It's cushioned but soft wood won't stand much.

Truth is, it would have made sense to have built up the elevator halves instead of using sheet balsa. The weight of a moving surface has a lot to do with it's flutter potential. Lots of ARFs have lightening holes lazered into full sheet surfaces like that. You can see above 4. where the horn crushed into the wood. And that was after CA had strenghtened it. The ply will solve that however.
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