I have only been in the hobby for a week now, but I am building an ultra stik 60. I mounted the wings and the tail is glued on and much to my disappointment the tail is slightly crooked. Looking at the plane from behind the tail is not parrallel to the wing by about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. The left side of the tail dips slightly compared to the wing.

It look straight when I test fitted it, but now that it is glued it is a little off. The tail is sitting flat on the fuselage, so i believe that the fuselage is twisted slightly.

Can anyone tell me how to remove an already epoxied hrizontal stab to atempt to fix this?" Or better yet, is there a way to twist the fuselage to correct this? This is an arf so it is already covered. Would I have to remove the covering to do whatever is needed to the wood to twist it back?

Or should i just forget it and not worry about the little bit of Yaw coupling it may have?

All your help is greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!

Shim the wing to match the stab. Use foam wing saddle tape; one layer on the left side and two layers on the right side. You can bend or shim the gear so that it will sit flat on the ground, or you can ignore that.

Jim

Actually I can't really tell if the fuselage is twisted or if the horizontal stab saddle is crooked. If the stab saddle is crooked, i would just cut it out then shim it, otherwise i will just shim the wing.

Can you guys tell me where to measure or how to check if the fusekage is twisted or if the stab is not sitting properly?

Let me give you a little insight on this. First off, I hate that this happened to you and your new plane. I have done this before and it will drive you nuts just thinking about it. Do not worry about it. The plane will more than likely fly perfectly, I'm 99.9% sure of it. Just to let you know how far off a surface can be and the plane still fly pretty good, I fly a lot of combat. If you've never seen a SPAD, when and if you ever do, you'll swear that it won't fly. These planes are thrown together in a matter of hours using anything from gutter pipe to election signs. During combat, these planes take some pretty hard hits, nearly knocking the wing or a tail surface completely off. A lot of times the plane will still fly, and sometimes it ends up taking a dirt nap. After inspecting some planes that have successfuly flown after taking a major hit, some have half the wing missing, or the wing knocked unblievably crooked. Some tail surfaces may be missing or barely hanging on.

What I'm trying to say is, a plane can be far from totally even and still fly nearly perfectly. I know, I know, you're not talking about a platic airplane, you're talking about a balsa plane that is fragile. It doesn't matter as long as it's not a biplane, that can be a whole different can of worms.
Don't worry about the minor mistake, the plane will fly just fine!

No doubt it will fly fine. It just may take a little extra trimming to get tracking straight. A fellow at our field has a high wing trainer-type plane (can't remember what it is) and the horizontal stabilizer is so far off its not funny. It flies fine, and even tracks straight through loops...go figure!

antman:

The fuselage being off a little doesn't affect flight trim, only the relationship between the wing and stab (and vertical fin).

Don't go cutting into the stab saddle though, unless you understand the structural engineering back there. If you accidentally weaken the fuselage (such as cutting a longeron) you could lose the tail in flight.

Get the flying surfaces lined up the best you can and ignore the slightly cockeyed fuselage.

Jim

Thanks for all your help, guys. I think I will just cut into the epoxy on the side of the stab that is sitting a little higher and just wedge a little thin balsa in there to straighten it out. Just for a little piece of mind. LOL

Antman,

Take my advice, DON'T CUT ANYTHING! Leave it alone! I know it is driving you crazy that it's like that, but it isn't going to affect a thing. If you go and start trying to cut the glue joint, you're sure to mess up something. Epoxy, after it has cured, is nearly impossible to cut. You would have to use a Dremmel or something of that nature to seperate it, and I know you don't have room to get a Dremmel in there without marring up the surface of the plane. Just leave it alone and deal with it, it will be fine. Just trying to help.

John

If you cant resist and have to cut something........................Cut the wing saddle. It will be easier and wont weaken the tail.
The first Ult bipe I built years ago had a crooked tail. I did it while building the fuse. I sanded the saddle to match the tail. It flew better than the one I have now and it's straight.

David

I actually did cut it and fix it. I had to or my mind would have exploded. i am a perfectionist like that. Anyway i am pretty skilled with my hands and figured i would not mess it up.

I did not cut it off, however, since it was only crooked by like 1 millimeter at the base of the tail saddle. That one millimeter did translate to about an inch at the tip of the tail.

What I did was to cut a slit in the right side of the tail in teh epoxy that held the stab in. The right side was the side that was higher. Then i cut a few small cuts in the left side. Those were to allow the tail to come up on that side. i then added little wedges on the right side to push it down until it was level and then re-epoxied. Added a little triangle stck and some thin fiberglass tape to the tail just to be sure and the tail is totally solid.

I know that i acted against the opinions of some, but i had to. LOL

Antman,

It's your plane, do as you wish. I just didn't want you too scar up your plane. I'm glad you got it the way you wanted.

More power to ya. I was trying to give you the easy way out. If it bothered you it would have bothered you from now on. You did the right thing for you. And it sounds like you did it right.

David