Jack_K

I'm repairing a club trainer that had the tail end, right at the leading edge of the stabilizer, break off. So I had a fuselage with no tail.
I epoxied the tail end back on by aligning the broken pieces back together. Once the epoxy cured, the stabilizer is not level to the fuselage.
I've studied it and just can't see any "easy" way to correct the out of level.

Anyone have any ideas?

A. J. Clark

Could you give more detail on how its not level with the fuse. How is it compared to the wing this might be more important.

foodstick

It really depends on what easy means ? Sometimes the repair seems drastic.. but is not that tough to do... Other times it can be tricky.
However if you post some pictures it would really help people see the situation , and what might be the best route to take.

Also quite honestly sometimes a trainer flown at slower speeds can fly ok with ISSUES....

Jack_K

One tip of the stab is 2.0" above the table top and the other tip is 2.8". The fuse is level, as is the wing saddle. The wing hasn't been prepped yet.

foodstick

Honestly, I have seen some worse alignment issues on a trainer that flew (ok)

I think I would try to fly it before tearing it up..........

Otherwise its going to need to be cut apart and reglued. I suppose a person could cut the fuse again and realign .. or cut the stab off the wing saddle and make the changes there...

Jack_K

OK. We'll fly it.

foodstick

Yeah, just go easy and make sure its not tail heavy after the repair.. I think it will trim out and fly decent.

If it gets tumbled again maybe you will have a second chance to repair it...
Their used to be a 120 sized Chipmunk that was flown in my area.. when you looked down the fuse you could see it had been broke in half and rebuilt with twists in at least 4 places ! hahhahha

The guy that owned it still loved it ...

Tom Nied

I wonder what you did? That's an Avistar, had a couple, loved my first one. I pretty much agree with all the above, you could just fly it. But, I would cut and re-glue. What did you end up doing?

Jack_K

We just flew it. No Problem.

foodstick

I have seen trainers that have been glued back together so many times that looking down the fuse ..everything is wrong... hahahah People still flying them. Not ideal, but working !

Glad it worked out for you.

r ward

simply cut it loose and re-glue it. either cut fuselage on the low side and insert a sliver of balsa to space it up or cut a sliver of balsa out of the fuselage on high side. either way will work just as good and it won't make any difference which way you do it. it could also just be left the way it is,...it won't affect the plane at all in flight.
that said, it would make me turn inside out every time I saw the crooked tail,.....it would bother me just knowing it's not right,...... so I would fix it . as mentioned,...it will probably gain just a touch of tail weight in the fix so go about it a way that keeps everything as close to original condition as possible.
when I learned to fly large u-control, I think I rebuilt the wing of my first plane, a profile "Buster", half a dozen times. it flew just as good (or bad !) as the first flight every time .

Tom Nied

To get an idea, when I flew Indoor free flight gliders, if you wanted the glider to turn, by having the stabilizer one side higher, it will turn toward the high side. So that's why they tell us to build straight and accurate. There's nothing wrong flying a beat trainer that's a bit off as far as accuracy, probably doesn't matter to the newbie. Then there's the esthetics, but a beat trainer, who cares? Right?

tedsander

The more important alignment for this is to make sure both the stab and the wing are aligned. Block up the wheels until the stab measures the same at each tip from a flat surface, then see if the wing tips are equal on each side. Since this is flying well enough, no worries. But if you notice that it is hard to trim, or has other odd behavior, the easiest thing to do would be to shim one side of the wing saddle or the other so the wing is level in relation to the stab.