RE: T-Hawk vs. gravity - need help
 

A tail is about $9 if you can buy it locally. I suggest you get a new tail and get the palne flying properly. This way you know that tail is clean. Then, you can fix the tail at your leisure and have it as a spare. Here is how I fix wings and tails.

FIXING WINGS AND TAILS

Repairing a CREASED Aerobird or Challenger wing with packing tape alone
doesn't really work very well. It works better on the tail because it
encounters different forces, but what I am about to explain works MUCH better
on both the wing and tail and is easy to do. It should also apply to the
Xtreme, and all the Firebirds.

A creased taped wing might fly, but at the first real stress, its gonna fold
and you are going to crash. Tape alone has no body or stiffness of its own to
resist a fold since the internal foam is compressed. Net Net, there is
nothing to resist the next fold. You need to stiffen and support the wing.

Things I have used for wings and the V tail with pretty good results.

Take a hobby knife or razor blade and open the vinyl covering at the crease or
stressed area

Get the wing set in the proper position, even bend it slightly the other way
to open up the gap.

Fill the folded area with Elmer's white glue or titebond yellow glue. I have
not tried Gorilla Glue, but that might work well. The white and yellow glue
will seep into the foam and bond with it and stiffen it.

Let it partially dry, least 30 minutes, then fill it again. The first coat
will soak in. The second coat will fill the gap. Give it a try. Let it dry
overnight, then apply a little clear packing tape to help resist it from
pulling open.

Another approach I used for large folds, especially center folds is to bond a
thin but somewhat stiff strip piece of wood, like 1/16th ply, to the top of
the wing. It works but it disrupts the air flow and the wing may not fly as
well. 1/32 ply might work also. I have never had one of these fold. I bond
it to the wing with double sided tape then cover it with clear packing tape
allowing the tape to form a smooth approach to the support rather than tucking
it in tight. Be sure to center it left and right so you don't unbalance the
wing. The bird can handle the weight of a light piece of plastic or wood.

Embedded supports

If you want to get more aggressive, you can cut the covering on a new wing or
a damaged wing, remove or compress some foam and embed the plywood or a dowel
support piece into the wing and glue it into the foam with Elmer's white glue
or Titebond yellow glue. The wing does have to flex a bit. Then tape over
the top to cover it. I have not used this approach but I may try it if I
badly bend a wing.

While Epoxy is strong, it doesn't move with the foam the way Elmer's or
Titebond do so I have seen a tendency for epoxy to pull away from the foam
which weakens the area.

If you look at the Firebird XL wing, it has a carbon rod embedded into it when
you buy it. Other similar planes, like the T-hawk, have these supports in
their wings when they are new. The Aerobird Xtreme has a carbon rod in it to
strengthen the wing and resist folding. I suggest doing this so that is spans
the body of the plane as many folds happen where the rubber bands attach. Too
often you make a hard off angle landing on one side of the wing but see no
damage to the wing. You think you have a clean wing, but in fact the foam
inside has been weakened. You fly and the wing folds and you say "what
happened?" What happened is 5 hard landings ago you stressed this spot,
compressed the foam enough to weaken it and boom you have a fold.

If you embed the rod or a piece of plywood, you can do that from the bottom
and leave the top of the wing clean. Just be sure to span the body area.

Give it a try. The key message here is don't depend on tape to keep the
crease from folding again. Tape is good for closing up damage on the front or
rear edges of the wing and for reinforcement of a new wing by the prop area,
but it can't keep
a creased wing from folding up again.