I'm just about ready to cover wing;but first I have to take the old covering off. How do I remove the ailerons with out damage to the wing? I thought about pulling them off with some pliers;but thought it would be best if I didn't try. To remove covering, do I use a heat gun or do I just rip it off?

Thank Brian

Brian, if you don't feel you can cover around the ailerons, your best bet is to use a sharp xacto knife and cut each of the aileron hinges. Be careful no to let the knife get away when the hinge finally lets loose, you can cause some serious damage to the aileron or wings.

Once the ailerons are cut loose, then cut the hinges bask to the wood. The new hinges will go in close to the old ones. Don't try to save the old hinges or try to put the new one in the same place.

It depends on the covering that you are taking off. Monokote will usually strip right off with little leftover color. Some of the arfs are adiffirent animal though and I'v managed to pull the plastic surface off but leave all of the color which is the adheasive. I don't like to use heat as it just trys to stick it down tighter. Lots of little pices are best, I usually cut between the ribs and then strip fore to aft.

Goodl luck

Don

You may cut them if they are CA hinges, however if they are nylon hinges that have been installed with epoxy or a good hinge glue, your best choice may be to leave them alone as they will ruin something if you try to pull them out. As for removing your covering, just tear off as much as possible. You may need to do some sanding to get the edges cleaned up, but it should pull off. Good Luck, Dave

I'd like to offer an alternative to David's comments about nylon hinges (either the flat kind, or the round "Robart" type:

There's a pretty handy bit for a Dremel tool out there that looks like a miniature skill saw blade. It's about 1" in diameter. I found mine at Harbor Freight.

It makes a fairly easy job of cutting nylon or plastic hinges. Just bend the surface down, lay the blade into the gap between surface and wing/stab, and cut through the hinge.

Once that's done, it's a pretty quick job to sand any protruding bits down flush with the wood, and then drill/cut new holes/slots for new hinges next to the old ones.

Certainly nothing wrong with covering around them as David suggested, but I've found that method to be a quick, simple, and safe (to the airplane anyway...*heh*) way to remove nearly any type of 'stubborn" hing that's not easily cut with a hobby knife.

I don't know what covering it is. Its an old swizzle stick that someone gave to me. The covering that will be on it is monokote. I don't know what type of hinges they are; each hinge looks like 2 flat pieces of metal side by side. I can get a pic if you like.

A photo of the hinge might be in order. If the hinge is metal, you may be able to use a high watt soldering iron and really heat up the hinge and then just pull it out when the glue has softened. You would have to work fast though and depending on how the hinge was set, you may be fighting a cross pinned hinge which isn't going to come out what ever you do.

One more question though, Is this a strip aileron with torque rods? If so, you need to really consider leaving the hinges alone and covering around them. Getting the hinges out isn't a problem, but getting the torque rod out can be a major problem. I removed the hinges on my trainer, which had a torque rod setup. I drilled a 1/16" or finner hole next to the 90 bend and used a 4/0 jewelers saw blade and cut the torque rod in half. Make sure you cut the rod cross the span, not the cross the cord, otherwise you will not get it out through the hinge. I did this because I wanted a servo on each aileron.

Don

Here is a pic of the wing without the ailerons and a pic of half of the hinge( I went ahead and cut'em) . I thought it was metal but it was just a piece of thin plastic

That's a CA hinge and you can cut it off as described above. Then re-hinge it in a different location (right next to the old hinge is a good spot. Use three or four on each side.

CGr