Elevator
 

hi, I am building a kit, and i just finished on the elevator. I noticed that on one of the elevators, at the end where both skins meet where it supposed to look like this >..... the top skin curves about 2mms down.... I was wondering if this would affect my airplane when i would fly it. Thanks

RE: Elevator
 

what kind of kit are you building and what kind of airplane is this ? chances are it wont but till you give more info i dunno.

RE: Elevator
 

It is a Top-Flite P-47 Thunderbolt Gold Edition. I already put all the skins on the stab/elev....

RE: Elevator
 

Can you post a picture?

Jerry

RE: Elevator
 

Sure, I will be getting one on today as soon as I can.

RE: Elevator
 

Ok, Here are the pics of the stab. of what I got so far......Not sure if it is any good but let me know. Input would be greatly appreciated......

http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=erxwl1]stab

RE: Elevator
 

[link]http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=erxykk[/link]

[link]http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=erxz7a[/link]

[link]http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=erxyt5[/link]

[link]http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=erxz5c[/link]

[link]http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=erxyzm[/link]

RE: Elevator
 

Those pics were not so helpful, but here is my advice: when I've had cupped trailing edges that were bad enough to bother me, I've just CAed a piece of 1/16" balsa (or whatever thickness is necessary) onto the concave side, then block-sanded down both sides to get the straight edge I wanted. It helps to draw a line with black marker for the edge you want, then sand down to it. Try to match the same thickness as the other elevator. Two mm is not awful bad, but depending on how picky you are, it's not hard to fix.

This generates a lot of balsa dust, which I save in a plastic bag to use for filler. Just mix the balsa dust with some aliphatic glue into a putty, knife it on, let it dry, and you get a pretty strong gap filler. Sands easily enough. Don't use a lot of glue--just enough to make the dust stick together.

RE: Elevator
 

But what about the whole thing though, Do you think it is looking good or what???

RE: Elevator
 

Joshua, I really can't tell by looking at those pics. No visible problem, let me put it that way. If a cupped elevator is the problem, I want to look at the trailing edge as if I were sighting down a gun barrel, to see if I'm looking at a straight line or curved, and if curved, by how much. But don't bother posting more pics, because my advice will be the same: if it bothers you, add some balsa to the concave side and shape it so it's straight.

The TopFlite P-47 should build out to a very nice model, so I'd want to keep my trailing edges straight. But if you let it fly the way it is, it's not going to be a severe problem, and maybe not even noticeable. I've seen plenty of visibly warped control surfaces, some on my own models, and they all fly "well enough" for toy airplanes. If you have high personal standards, or build/fly for competition, then you should fix anything you see that doesn't look right.

RE: Elevator
 

from your photos, there is no cup. need better shots. if there are cups, just add another sheet of balsa to overlap the cup and start sanding flat again, useing a sanding board, not just fingers. always sand with the length of the part. dick

RE: Elevator
 

When sheeting you need to butt the sheeting together because when there is spacings it makes it weaker then it should be.

RE: Elevator
 

Not as long as your adding sheeting as a filler of a swallow. go ahead and add the filler sheet and sand away to the desired countour. make sure that you have cement on the entire cntact surface' dick