Farmer Ted

My Feedback: (5)

Another newbie type question for you all:

What are the effects of less than perfect stabilizer and fin alignment (either to each other or the rest of the plane)?

will it cause adverse roll, yaw, etc?

is it trimmable?

This plane I just built was perfect as I epoxied everything and now it seems that the stab is a little droopy on one side somehow. I thought of trying to heat the covering in order to tension the droop out but I'm not sure how effective that will be.

Thanks for answering all of my dumb questions that I'm sure you've all answered a million times before!

Jburry

A misaligned stab will cause some yaw with pitch input, like having a little rudder mixed in. Most pilots won't notice a small misalignment, but a large one (more than a couple degrees) would become noticable. A misaligned fin will add pitch input to rudder input.

Covering can be used to pull warped structures to true, but it's a bandaid. Since your problem is in the joint to the fuse, it won't likely fix that. Decide if you can live with it or not, that's up to you, but if it were mine, I'd break it free and re-glue it properly. Use a 5 minute epoxy, and baby sit it till it's set, then be sure it's supported somehow till it's dried. I've had success using masking tape as temporary struts. I align mine with a drafting triangle with the corner knocked down to clear the fuse. I'll allow mine 1 degree of misalignment, max, before I break it off. Tail feathers are so easy to rebuild (well, in smaller planes), even if I break it removing it, no biggy.

J

aerowoof

it will be trimable but if you change power settings the trim will change also.best to fix it now

Azcat59

Jburry is right. Another possible solution, depending upon your radio's sophistication, is to mix out any coupling. For example, if it tends to yaw left when you give up elevator, mix it using elevator as the master, and rudder as the slave, to give a little right rudder when you apply up elevator. Also, the effect of misalignment will be a lot more severe if it is a faster high performance airplane than a slower trainer type.

By the way, a good friend, Earl Smith, moved to Ft. Collins from Phoenix and has joined a local club, so if you see him Farmer Ted, tell him 'hello!

Clair Sieverling

ChuckW

What kind of plane is it? Obviously, you want everything to be aligned as perfect as possible. You'd be shocked at some of the things I've seen flying at the field though. Planes with stabs not parallel to the wing, stabs turned one direction or the other and so on. It's definitely not a good thing and you should do everything to avoid it but your plane may still fly OK with a little trimming, especially if it's something like trainer.

Farmer Ted

My Feedback: (5)

Its a Lanier SE5a EP ...my first bipe and I'm excited to fly it.

It's a slower plane for sure but I'm anticipating good aerobatics so I want it to track well through maneuvers. I will look into re-aligning things before the maiden.

As always, thanks for all of the great responses, I hope that some day perhaps I can help someone else out.

sebo

Fix it now. It will take less time than a possible complete rebuild.

somegeek

My Feedback: (2)

A build tip - keep an eye on your tail feathers when you glue them on. With 30 minute epoxy I check every few minutes with a ruler or a square to verify everything is where I want it. Epoxy joints can drift a little as they set up. With 30 minute epoxy I stay around and check up to about 40 minutes. Also use some pins to keep stuff in place. Always seems I have to do some taping or add weights to get stuff straight and to stay put while the epoxy sets up firm. All the time and effort spent on a build - this 30-40 minutes of keeping an eye on the joint is worth it.

Only dumb question is the one left unasked.

somegeek

danny31292

Trimming it out will be too much trouble. Fix it and you'll never have to worry about it.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

I have assembled many arfs with this problem from the factory .
I take two long hard pieces of a flat wood , usually ply that wont bend under pressure .(even long sanding tools)
I take foam to protect the plane and I clamp the assembly so that I am squeezing the pieces as straight as possible . Usually easy on ARfs with flat flying surfaces but can also be done carefully on fully semetrical surfaces .
If you have the patience , go onto another project and withen a week or so you wil have a much better match .