PT-40 Wingtip Question
 

Got a little question before I start covering the wing of my PT-40..:

http://home.online.no/~bjoseb/annet/...Qestion_sm.jpg

Ive glued and sanded the triangular wing tip stocks as the manuals says, but im unsure if it needs more rounding off before covering. Does it look ok, or am I supposed to make it more rounder? In some way it makes sense to round it more, but then i dont understand why the tips were originaly TRIANGLE blocks and not just normal quads (2-by-4-ish). Hope someone can tell me what do to..didnt feel the manual was all clear on this point.

RE: PT-40 Wingtip Question
 

I wouldn't make it any rounder, but you may want to fill that hole (Where the LE, Wing Tip and Sheeting meet) with a little wood filler

RE: PT-40 Wingtip Question
 

Ok, so its supposed to have that "flat" look at the very end, right? And yes, im going to go over the entire wing applying CA or filler where needed.

RE: PT-40 Wingtip Question
 

The rounding looks good to me. The rounder they are, the easier it is to make the covering smooth over them so don't be afraid to sand on them more if you think it will look better to you.

As for the angle, a chiselled wingtip helps to provide a some dihedral effect. However in the case of the PT-40 the angle is very small, so the chisel effect is more for aesthetic purposes than any other reason. Kind of like why they make the tail in such a nice, fancy shape when simple a simple rectangular stab would work just as well.

Richard

RE: PT-40 Wingtip Question
 

I pretty much made mine razor sharp on the edges, had to pull the monokote pretty hard to bring it around howeverl. I have photos posted under "my first ride" thread.

SuperHoggie

RE: PT-40 Wingtip Question
 

This is the best part about building a kit. I think we all agree that the tips on this plane have little aerodynamic effect. In other words, you can probably make them look however you want them to look, even if it's different than the picture on the box. ;)

As for what rwlewis said, it's true even for full size aircraft. I believe 2 good examples are the cessna 172 tail sections and cessna 310 tip tanks and tail. They made some significant changes to the appearance of these structures from 1 model to the next without any real aerodynamic benifit, and in some cases an aerodynamic loss just to make them look "more streamlined"!

Enjoy your new plane,
~Todd

RE: PT-40 Wingtip Question
 

The upward angle of the wingtips on the Great Planes PT-40 add a bit to the dihedral effect. If you went with a flat vertical tip, or a regular, rounded tip, it would be the same as removing about 1 degree of dihedral.