How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

Well, I bought what I thought was a cheap but beautiful Katana S 50cc ARF by Flight Models, only to be disappointed in repeated flaws in the building. The covering material is the worst I have seen, but I could get over that. My problem now, is that I noticed the fuselage tail has an ever so slight twist. Only after the stab was glued in with Gorilla glue did I notice the slight twist, which shows up as one stab being lower than the other side. The stab slides through two laser cut slots on each side of the fuselage for it. The wings were not on when I glued in the stab, and only after I got the wings on did I notice the stab is tilted in relation to the wings. What can I do besiges throwing it away .... to fix this stab situation? Trying to cut that stab out of the plywood fuse sides seems .. ??????

RE: How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

Can you get a pic from the rear?

How much is "ever so slight"?

Is the Vertical Fin also twisted?

RE: How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

Never assume that any ARF is in perfect alignment. Check them out before you even look at any glue.
If it is just ever so slight you can fly it that way but if you're concerned about aesthetics you may have to jackhammer that Gorilla glue out of there.
I'd be more concerned about that pusher prop (your 1st picture). :D

RE: How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

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RE: How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

Your statement is very true, however the wings WERE on .. when I measured up everything and marked it. I had a little bit of difficulty getting the corner tip of stab to the corner tip of wing to measure out initially. After I got those measurements to equal ... all looked OK. What I didn't do was pick up the tail and visually inspect that the stab and wing were on the same horizontal plane. I never thought that the plywood sides of the fuselage might be 1/16 off. .... 1/16" off at the fuse shows up as something like 3/8" off at the tip, when comparing left stab tip to right stab tip .. and to me is very noticeable.[&o]

.... That first pic is the manufacturer's pic, .. and yes that does look like a pusher prop they have on it. Now you see what I'm dealing with:eek:.

RE: How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

MinnFlyer, I'll try to get a pic of the stab from the rear later tonight. I think I know how to attack it now though ... but would still like to hear suggestions. The vertical fin is not twisted. Its like when the two sides of the fuse were mated at the tail post, one plywood side was slightly lower than the other.

RE: How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

While the difference is going to drive you nuts aestetically... the 3/8" difference at the tip will be barely noticible if the stab is otherwise level with the plane of the wings.


If the stab were warped as well, you would have bigger problems. But if it is just slight "angle" instead of being perpendicular with the fuselage you'll barely notice.

It could possibly show up as a very slight corkscrew during TIGHT loops, but I've flown smaller planes with larger angles ( thanks to damage due to crashes ) w/o anything like this appearing.

RE: How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

I have edited my post 3 times ... changing how much the difference is. I once had 1/4" ... 3/8" .. and once I had 1/2"! I'm not totally sure what it is. I didn't measure it last night when I saw it ... because it didn't matter ... All I know is it shows up BIG TIME! If you were walking down a flihgtline .. looking a planes lined up with the nose first, .. when you got to this one ... you would see .. spinner, fine ... cowl, fine ... wings, fine .... then you would see ..stab tilted! While looking across the plan-form of the wing, your peripheral vision would also pick up the stab and its non parallel horizontal line in comparison to the wing. Its unacceptable. Something has to be done. One of my pet peeves is things that obviously don't look right. Its my fault, I understand that .. but I can't live with it. You'll ne3ver see me fly with out a cowl or wheel pants ... I can't stand it .. I can't do it . Aesthetics just mean too much to me. So, .. how did I let this happen if I'm that anal ??? ... I don't know.

RE: How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

Run some tail guide wire and pull the fin level OR start cutting.........Iv'e done the cutting before it's possible.

RE: How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

Heh, heh...

I'm referring to flight performance versus aesthetics.

Time to start cutting close to the fuselage.

Or how about carefully SCORING the stab along the fuselage repeatedly so as to partially cut through the stab., then seeing if you can fix the difference by liberally applying epoxy and letting it dry at the fixed angle.

RE: How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

My brother was over last night, and we carefully inspected it. We're not sure now the defect is not in the stab itself It kinda looks like the stab itself drops off on the outboard final 4 inches. Either way, the difference doesn't seem nearly as bad as it did when I intially discovered it. He's convinced me that its not that bad and to just fly it before I think about going into it.

RE: How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

would you be able to have someone hold the front of the fuse and somone twist from the back and heat the whole back of the fuse with a heat gun? and then let it cool off before you let go

RE: How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

Not a bad idea ... If I can't stand it as it is ... I'll give this a shot!

RE: How to Fix Twisted Tail on ARF ???
 

Hmm.. I'm not sure that would work. What would hold it in place once it cools? This covering sure won't ... its the worst stuff I've ever seen!