Top hinge on my Sukhoi rudder. One full season of flying. I guess I'll have to re-think the durability of these hinges on models bigger than .60 size.

I'm sure not looking forward to installing pined hinges. Oh well.

If ya gotta do the pinned type., try the Robart hinge points. I recently started using them for big planes and I love them.

Welcome to the broken CA hinge club.

Hinge Points are super easy to install. Once you do them, you'll wish CA hinges were as good.

John

I tried hinge points once in the past. They seem to have zero tolerance to misaligned holes. How do you drill four holes on the fin and four on the rudder and have them all line up perfectly? It seems impossible.

Robart makes a very neat drill jig tool for hinge points. It comes with two different size bushings and you can order another directly from them. It's made to work on either constant thickness surfaces, or tapered.

http://www.robart.com/New%20Pages/Hinge.html

Scroll down to the middle of the page. It's item #319 and I paid $4.99 for it at one of my LHS's.

John

My trick is using a short length of hardwood about the same thickness as the surface to be hinged, the same length, and about 1/2" wide. Mark the hinge locations on it, then using a press, drill guide holes in it. Hold it to the edge of the surface, and drill the holes. Next, hold it against the other part to be hinged and drill that side.

Wow. All holes aligned properly, and no fuss, no bother.

Enjoy.

Bill.

PS: When building I drill both sides at once, if either side is built up. With solid surfaces I use the home made guide there also. wr.

I've only had one hinge break. When I looked at it with a magnifying glass it looked like I used too much thin CA, and the extra turned into tiny razor blades cutting the hing after use. I now use the CA sparingly, drill a small hole in the center of the slit, and clear away any covering near the slit. Have planes that are ages old with no issues.

I did have an issue with Great Pains hinges de-laminating though. I quit using the GP ones ages ago. My buddy just had his elevator fall off in flight last week due to de-laminating hinges. Guessing they were GP ones as they came with his UcanDo Kit.

William Robison, dude! That is an excellent suggestion. A drill template/jig. I like it and I'm going to give it a shot.

I really thought the CA hinges would do the job. I think the issue comes down to the fact that there is no indication (feedback) that you have or have not installed them properly. If you screw up a pined hinge, you know right away.

This airplane still has 16 CA hinges on it. My Ultimate has 26. I'm now inspecting them every flying day.

I favor Radio South's CA hinges....haven't let me down yet!

Jerry