garywi

My Feedback: (3)

Hi,

Are the ailerons centered when the right end of the aileron is flush with the right winglet, or when the left end of the aileron is flush with the top of the fuselage?

Thanks!

carrellh

In a perfect world - both. I think alignment at the tip is most critical.

da Rock

The most important thing is for each aileron to be centered to each wing. You check it by standing directly behind the model with your eyes centered straight back from the rudder. You move so that you see the same amount of the top of each wing as you see of the bottom. You then look at the ailerons to see if you can see either the top or bottom of either.

With a Stick's untapered ailerons, you really shouldn't see any of the top or bottom of either aileron.

The idea is to see 4 things at once.... grin...... yeah...... or is it 6 things at once......

You want to see equal amounts of the wing. The same amount of top as bottom, and that's for both sides. That's 4 equal parts. And.... you don't want to see any top or any bottom of either aileron.

It's a skill that takes some practice.

BTW, ignore the tips pieces. They are often built onto the wings out of alignment. And if you match the aileron to that, you will have way more trim problems than not.

da Rock

"Eyeballing" a model to check for alignment is a skill that's worthwhile to have. It takes some practice and thought.

What's funny about it is that most people don't think about doing it.

Also, I flew a guy's airplane for him just the other day that looked like it's ailerons were aligned perfectly. The ends of the ailerons matched up perfectly with the tip extensions. The insides lined up perfectly with the back part of the wing that extended back beside the ailerons. That extension was where the wing hold down bolts went.

While flying the model, I thought it was really kinky. So I landed it and eyeballed it from the back to see if it had any warps.

Turns out that the symmetrical wing had been built with the fixed parts of the wing's TE at a down angle. And then the ailerons had been rigged on the wing to match those fixed parts of the TE. The wing was actually flying with flaperons that were permanently trimmed down.

I adjusted the ailerons to be straight back from the wing and the sucker flew a lot better.

It was a kit built model and the builder had somehow gotten those fixed pieces attached at a down angle. And then had compounded that error.

da Rock

By the way, the first thing you do when eyeballing the wing is to check for warps.

You do that by ligning up the root area of one wing panel so you see an amount of the top of the wing equal to the bottom of the wing (directly below the top section). You are looking at lets say the right wing and holding the airplane to see the root section with equal top and bottom showing.

You then hold the plane and your head steady and move just your eyeballs..... cast your glance out toward the tip of that wing. As your eyesight moves along the wing you look to see if you're seeing more top or more bottom of the wing. What you're looking for is that the TE is centered along the entire span. Ignore the ailerons while doing this. If the wing passes this first test and you don't see any warps THEN start looking at how the ailerons look compared to the wing.

It takes some concentration, but is well worth the effort.