OK, just started building my SM BAe Hawk, everything going along great until I cut a slot in the flap to mount the carbon control arm and the wood block that is suppsoed to be there is MIA. Should I a) fill the slot with enough Hysol and glue in the arm anyway b) return the wing c) Cut out small square in the surface, glue in a wood block and put up with an ugly flap or d) ???. Any ideas here guys?

I poured a slurry of milled fiber and 30 min epoxy in then slot I cut. I then turned the wing at an angle to allow the mix to flow down towards the cf horn..........seems solid for now but has not flown yet.

I filled it with hysol and pushed in a few wedges of balsa under and on each side of the horn. I think it was only on one wing panel bt it was a pain in the neck. This is a great model but some of these little things create a bit of a sour after-taste. It make you wonder if anyone at skymaster actually built a productiion model.

I dont think so. I think overall they have made a lot of progress in the last year but their products still have a lot of shortcomings. There are too many things that need to be re-engineered to make them work. While their kits are billed as ARFs they are a long way from it. They need some good modelers to provide some "beta" testing with pre-production kits before they are released to their customers and make changes so the end user will be successful without lots of "cuttin and hackin'". My Hawk is a really pretty airplane but I agree the changes I must make leave a lot to be desired. If they would just make some of the changes recommended by us on RCU they would solve most of their problems. As for other problems with this kit you will find the fuel thanks are unusable as the clunks are in the top and stab linkage geometry just plain stinks. Before you cut the holes in your wings for the flap linkage stop!!!! You can place the entire control arm under the skin and use a straight rod to the control arm on the flap. I plan on redoing mine before it flies. Look at the thread about the SM F-18 flap problem to see what I am talking about. It's Gary Bakers solution and should work well for the Hawk.

This is what surprises me. My SM F-15 needed this exact same fix in the flap.

The F-14 will likely be the same way, needing a few things to make it flyable.

Kind of lives up to the mantra that the chinese will make anything and don't care about what it looks like as long as it sells.

I have to admit the SM jets sure look pretty but they need some final "coaxing" for completion....[]

Raf

We have had the same kind of problems with the 1/6 F-16.Overall great looking good qaulity composite work and fit,very detailed yet some pretty silly mistakes,some easy to fix,some not so easy to fix.

Why not use gorilla glue(PU glue)? This expands into the void especially if the horn is damp when you push it in. When its set everything will be solid. Be careful not to overdo it or it can balloon your control surface and mask off the area around the slot.
I am using it for hinges and it works really well.

here it is

Mate having the same problem here with my SuperHornet..........I just keep shaking my head with everything I have to do. Yes sour after taste here too!

A couple of guys I know used to beta test for skymaster but a lot of the times Anton did not listen to their recommendations and eventually he cut them off. Now Skymaster has a new US distributor but they seem worse to me than before. I sent Jeff an email several weeks ago about getting the new Grippen hydrulic struts and air filled tires. After two days with no response, I called and Jeff said he was just about to answer my email. Well, he said he did not have them in stock and would get in touch with Anton to find out the price and get them ordered. Two days go by and again, no response. I call Jeff again and he said Anton had not responded to his email. Another two days go by and I call Jeff again. He said Anton still had not responded to his email but promise that he will let me know something in a day or two. It's been 3+ weeks now and Jeff has not contacted me again. I guess the US distributor doesn't want my business.

Kirk

Have you found a solution to your problem yet? I am building a FB Velox and face the same problem on one of my aileron and flap.

Would like to know what you did... I am planning on injecting lots of Hysol into the slot using a syringe with a curved tip and gluing in the control horn.

Hello JC,

I had a similar problem, what I did was to glue two pieces of balsa sticks on either side where the horn would sit, then filled it with hysol. I also applied hysol to the bottom and sides of the control horn to make sure is wet. then inserted the part in to the cavity. The balsa sticks need to be about 1/4 " high to build the dam for the hysol. True hysol does not run, but the dam will make sure it stays put and give you as much surface contact as possible when you insert the control horn.

Hope that helps.

Regards,
Mike

Based on several comments and people that I spoke with I went ahead and made up a slurry of Hysol and milled fiberglass and worked quite a bit in the slot. There is no way its going anywhere! I just can't understand why SM and some of the other makers have this issue.

Purple Kool aid.