Re: Wing Post Sockets (tubes)

From: Bill Gowen <b.gowen_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2007 00:00:48 -0500

There have been several good suggestions made for solving your problem. Here's one that you might not like but is very effective:
After getting the model trimmed on contest day glue all the posts into their sockets. I've told many teams to do that. If they win and get to go to the next level they can always do whatever it takes to get the model apart after the event is over and before the next one. One thing I always stress is that if your wing or stab falls off you are seriously out of luck.

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: calgoddard
  To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
  Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 8:50 PM
  Subject: [Indoor_Construction] Wing Post Sockets (tubes)


  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.




   

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Received on Sat Feb 24 2007 - 21:01:39 CET