ORIGINAL: seanreit
Rock, this conversation comes up at my house at times. Would you suggest the same 1/16" for the jets? I'm currently bringing it down to about 1/8" on the control surfaces, and a little less (maybe a 1/16 on the rudder).
I sandwich 1/64 3 ply at the trailing edge and sheet 1/16 balsa over that, glass etc.
I would suggest whatever each modeler decides is right for his building skills versus his hopes for the airplane's performance.
I built a 3m glider some years back that had a sheeted wing. I sandwiched the top sheeting to the bottom sheeting with a ribbon of Carbon Fiber in between. Tapered that TE to be almost sharp, to the thickness of the CF. That glider is awesome.
I left the TE of the elevator on my ARF Tiger60 fat and round. It flies ok. Haven't had any problems with flutter or anything. Well, the model has almost no ability to snap but that's probably because that elevator is so wimpy. And truth is, I'm about to double it's chord as we speak. And absolutely plan to taper the whole thing to the TE.
Most of our daily flyer models will perform adequately with almost any thickness TEs. It's why this subject has so many different sides.