I am trying to get my plane setup properly and balanced. My question is, on a symmetrical wing, does the aileron follow the contour of the top of the wing or the bottom. Or should it be at 90 degrees from the top and bottom of the wing. My instruction manual does not say.

Thanks

Derek

Derek,
First of all, the only stupid question is the one that doesn't get asked. What plane are you setting the ailerons for? How you align the ailerons is going to depend on the type of wing you have. I'm going to take a stab at this and assume (you know what they say about that!! ) that it's a trainer with at flat bottom wing. If this is correct you will align the ailerons so that they are level with bottom of the wing. If you have a different type of wing let me know. Take a look at the attached pictures. These are from a Sig LT-40 that I'm building right now. I have a build thread going on it if you are interested, you can find it at [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3439708/tm.htm]Pay It Forward built. Sig LT-40[/link] . You can see in the pictures how you can use 2 pieces of wood and a couple of clamps to align your ailerons with the bottom of the wing.

Is this an ARF or a kit? If it's a kit the cross section of the wing drawing should show you how to align the ailerons.

Hope this helps

Ken

it depends the 4 star 60 kit has a tool that you use to align the ailerons.
look at the instructions or the plans carefully make sure you didnt over look something

A good starting place would be; the ailerons should be set to neutral, which means they should be parallel to the cord of the wing. The cord is a line drawn from the tip of the leading edge, to the middle of the trailing edge of the airfiol section. The type of airfiol makes no real difference. There are cases where the above may not be absolutly true. However, for your purposes this is how I recommend they be set up. Get them as close to neutral as you can and more importantly, get them parallel (equal) to each other.

derek533,

Mode One has given you the right answer. Draw a chord line from the leading edge to the trailing edge. The ailerons should be an extention of that line.

Listen to Mode One for a symmetrical wing.

Dr.1

Thanks for the responses guys. I thought that may have been the proper way (line from the LE to the TE and the aileron being an extension of that line) but wasn't sure.

BTW Ken, the plane is a h9 Twist. I have been told that it flies real floaty like a trainer on low rates but when you crank them up, watch out! We'll see. The weather in OKC today is shaping up to be a fairly nice day for flying and I hope I can maiden her today.

Derek

Derek,
Down here in Lawton the weather is a no-go for flying. Overcast and the winds are picking back up again. Supposed to really be blowing hard later on today. Here we go with the wildfires again!

Ken

Ken may help bear this out, but a Symetrical wing, is one that if there were an imaginary line drawn from centerline of the lead edge to the centerline of the trailing edge, both halves would be a mirror image of the other.continuing rearward through the control surface, then it would bisect the center of the control surface. That would put the control surface lined up equally with both top and bottom surface. Upon maidening the Twist, you may find that you need to trim them both upward, downward or apply abit of left or right aileron trim. Same for the Elevator only upward and downward. Just my 2c.

Oh and as for Windy! Our clubs (TORKS) New Years day fly went something like this: Sunday morn, the wind was calm 5-10. by noon it was 15 to 20, by 2pm, it was 40 with gusts to 53! I believe my last flight was around 1:30 and the last flyer to land (Mosquitowings) touched down at 230, with a Harrierish landing of a 60 size P51D Mustang. It was a handful, but lots of fun. www.torks.org