Wing Post Sockets (tubes)

From: calgoddard <calgoddard_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2007 01:50:58 -0000

Our Science Olympiad team has a plane that is right at the minimum
weight and is well trimmed. An excellent prop/motor combination has
been found through many flights.

The lower rounded portions of the wing posts have apparently shrunk
or compacted slightly over time and are starting to get looser in the
wing sockets than the kids would like. They are made from 1/16 square
balsa. The students don't want any unexpected, unintended changes in
the angle of incidence of the main wing during a flight if, for
example, the plane collides with a beam. The students would rather
not replace the wing posts and risk damaging the wing. Unfortunately
the wing posts and their angles braces were glued to the LE and
trailing edge spars with CA. The students don't want to have to
change the wing post sockets on the MS for fear of damaging the motor
stick.

I suppose you could cut off the lower segments of the existing
wingposts and glue new segments over the same, with slightly larger
rounded portions, but the new lower segments would have to be
perfectly aligned to maintain the proper wash in on the inboard
traing edge.

Is there a good way of adding some material to the rounded lower ends
of the wing posts to so that they fit more snugly in the wing post
sockets? Someone mentioned putting a layer of CA on them. But then
you can't do the temporary fix of wetting them so they expand.

For wing post sockets our team is using Post-it tabs rolled around
drill bits and held together with Duco, as recommended in Lew
Gitlow's book. They have found them to be much better wing post
sockets than those rolled from Japanese tissue which get mushy and
the plastic tubes which are difficult to securely glue to the motor
stick. They only weigh about .02 grams each.

Thanks for your recommendations.
  
Received on Sat Feb 24 2007 - 17:51:01 CET