Solo in Sight!
 

After about a year of on and off flying, Sun_Kissed_Girl (my sister) has a solo flight in sight! We went to the flying field today, and she mastered everything and can proficiently fly the airplane throughout its entire flight envelope. The only thing left she has to work on is landing. She did an excellent setup last weekend, and all her instructor had to do was glide the plane down to the ground after she did downwind, base, and turned to final. Today, she did setup for landing again, another excellent one, but the last landing was a manditory landing because her instructor and herself were practicing aerobatics, and the plane ran out of fuel. Hopefully I can get her on here to post. :)

On an unrelated topic, I stole SKG's Hangar 9 Twist because she built it but can't fly it yet. I stole it around 6 months ago and told her I promised to give it back when she soloed (which I'll do of course). Well today while flying it, three of the four screws securing the rudder servo flew off, as well as the canopy. I did get the plane back down in one piece, thankfully, otherwise I might not have a plane to give back! [X(]:eek:;) I did put thin CA in all the servo holes to harden the wood, but I failed to put some medium CA on the screws themselves which probably caused them to back out. That, and I found out that I installed the wrong servo grommets. :eek:

EDIT: left a word out :eek:

RE: Solo in Sight!
 

Good Job on getting It down safe i would hate to tell my sister that i crashed her plane that i stole from her[&o] but yea make sure all them bolts a secured in there real good ;)

RE: Solo in Sight!
 

You don't CA screws in place that hold servos. What are you doing wrong? Did you drill the screw holes too big and the screws are loose fit? Are the screws too short? I've NEVER heard of anyone using CA on the mounting screws. Just wrong!! [:@][:'(]

RE: Solo in Sight!
 

I think I probably drilled the holes too large, although I did use a 1/16" drill bit. That, and I might have stripped out the threads that the screws made in the wood from overtightening with the wrong servo grommets. :eek:[X(][&o] I'm thinking maybe I should CA a small strip of wood behind each area where there are servo mount holes because the servo screws secure into just the outer plywood and nothing else.

RE: Solo in Sight!
 

I never use a drill as big as 1/16 even, more like 1/32" and then use a little more torque. If you use hex (allen) drive screws instead of the cheap ones the mfg usually provide it's easier to apply the torque needed also.

To repair your existing holes take a sliver of hard wood from something like a round toothpick and CA it into the hole. Then redrill the holes with a smaller pilot drill and install the screws.
RTL and Micro-Fasteners have the hex drive servo screws.
http://www.microfasteners.com/catalo.../TWSSHWHMS.cfm
product STW0209

RE: Solo in Sight!
 

Another way is to drill the hole oversize and insert a dowel, then redrill for the proper size hole. I've used this repair for anything from servo holes that stripped to wing hold downs to plugging old attach holes in the firewall when installing a different engine. And I use epoxy to install the plug just for added security.

If you're just relying on plywood to hold the servo, back it up with a piece of wood - spruce, pine, or something that is a bit stronger than the ply.

Hogflyer