Hey All,
So, I'm putting together my first ARF, a Sig Kadet, and everything was going great, until I glued the CA hinges on the elevator. As the glue set, the elevator took on a distinctive snap up or down from the neutral position to a 10 or 15 degree up or down position. The glue was only on the hinge, not the horizontal stab or elevator. There are four hinges across the back of the thing. My question is: Is this okay? Will the hinge loosen up? Will the servo have enough strength to hold the elevator in the neutral position? I'm a little worried, since the CA hinge thing seems pretty permanent. Please help put my mind at ease here... Thanks so much. -Sean "Spool" Mahoney

it sound like it has a small bow to do that lay a strait edge on top to check

if its strait flex the hinges to you get board they will loosen up a lot you did use thin ca right

Just keep pushing it to both extremes of throw about 20 times. It'll loosen up. You may have pushed it against a non-straight bearing edge of a stab and cocked it a bit. Like I said flex the hinges alot before you fly it. It does loosen up.

Joe

Be safe, not sorry. Cut off the elevator by cutting through the hinges, trim the old hinge material flush with both the elevator and horizontal stab, then put in new hinges beside the old ones.

That happens when you push in one or more of the CA hinges too much when you glued them. What you don't want to do is push on the elevator after you have already glued one of more of the hinges. You MUST let the remaining hinges relax when you drop CA onto them. It's easy to make this mistake with a big long elevator like the Kadet Senior.

You'll probably be allright flying it as is, especially on something as tame as the Kadet, as long as you don't over power it. In time though, the engine vibration will likely snap the tight elevator hinge(s) around enough to cause it to fail. Even then, I doubt you'll loose control entirely since there are so many CA hinges on that elevator, and not all af them are going to fail all at once..

I would test fly it the way it is. If the "bowing" and snapping doesn't cause any unpleasant flight characteristics, just go ahead and fly it as is. Do check the hinges regularly for signs of failure. OR, you can find out which hinge is the tight one If it is one at either end of the elevator, cut it and install another CA hinge right next to it. If it is an interior one, you might be able to do the same, but it'll be tight to squeeze a CA hinge in.

Thanks for all the help everyone...in the end, I decided to be safe and hopefully not sorry, cut the elevator off and trimmed the hinges and installed new ones. The new ones are a little thinner than the originals, but hopefully with four of them, I'll be okay. The elevator works perfectly now, so I'm a happy camper! - Spool[8D]