Hi Guys,
I am looking for a little advice here. I have aquired a second hand SM Hawk and I am endevouring to modify the tailplane drive system. I have purchased a JL T45 taildrive mechanism which is a little jewel of engineering. Intstalling the mechanism on a new former has been straightforward.
In case you are wondering why I should bother as there was nothing wrong with the Skymaster set up, it is purely in the intersts of transportability. In short I need the tailplane halves to be removable in order to get it in my car.
The SM pivot rods are slightly larger than those required by the JL dirive mechanism and so I was intending to remove the pivot rods and have them machined to suit. However, I have noticed that there appears to be two small holes in the tailplane undersurface which have been filled and painted. It seems likely that these are for pins of some kind. If so, it may be possible for me to drill them out but I would need to know what I am drilling first. If its ali there should be no problem but if its music wire I have a problem.
Anybody know please?
Regards,

John

John,

Please do NOT drill the two pins out, and try to take out the shaft (pivot rods). Inside of shaft have more structure to hold the stab, it is not only the 2 pins. You might have serious structure damage if you try to take the shaft out.

John,

If the SM rods are slightly larger, why not just machine the JL stab mechanism to fit the SM rods.....provided there is enough material on the JL unit so as not to sacrifice it's strength.

The problem is JL T-45 is small then Skymaster Hawk. The stab will be too small for Skymaster Hawk.