I've been flying my H9 CAP 232 for about three years and the CA hinges on one of the ailerons came loose in flight. My question is, can I just re-CA these hinges, or should I remove them and put new ones in? If I put new ones in, should I also put in new slots before installing them or just use the old slots?

Thanks,
Jim

If you can get the loose hinges out of both surfaces I would replace them with new ones. If the new hinges slide into the old slots it should be fine, otherwise make new slots. If the hinges only came loose from one surface and you can't get them out of the other, check to make sure they are still good and just re-glue them. You may want to double check all the other hinges for tightness while you are at it. What ever you end up doing, just make sure you can't pull them apart after the CA cures.

For the sake of a few cheap CA hinges and a little bit of your time, I would replace them.

No sense losing a good plane over a few cheap hinges!

YOU CAN NOT USE CA ON THE HINGES TWICE !!!
This is a common mistake and caused the loss of more than a few planes. A CA hinge works because it allows the glue to "wick" along the fuzzy surface on each side, once that surface fills with hardened CA it will no longer "wick". Yes I know that people have gotten away with it, but it's a bad idea. I have also heard of people reinstalling them with 30 min epoxy, this sounds better to me than the CA but I still don't think I would do it. Why not just cut the remaining hinges, leave them in the plane and install a point hinge on each side on the remains.

OUTCAST makes a good point about CA hinges being of a design that is meant for single usage but if all of the hinges on one surface came loose, (no offense to SearchMan), I doubt they ever had enough CA on them to begin with.

Ding-Ding-Ding ....Outcast wins a cupie doll!

Thanks All,

I have decided (out of fear) to do what Outcast has suggested - install Hinge Points or pinned hinges. My CAP 232 has well over 100 flights on it and I was lucky to get it on the ground safely.

There was no offense taken on the lack of CA on the hinges comment - I had a friend stick the ARF together for for a service charge! You can bet I will be tugging on all surfaces after each flight!

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

Glad Outcast said it before I did. Good Call Outcast.