Hi Mark, I value your opion very much, thoguh I might not been clear in my email, wish I could take some pictures but I'm in Orlando right now.
Anyways, the Horz Stablizer is fine, nothing wrong with it, it's all on the elevator it looks like something just snapped it off on one side. Most of the wood for the elevator as shown in the picture is there, as I'm not familer with the construction and don't have the plans I can't say how much is missing. So here is me guessing. I think there was some kevlar or glass laid up over a foam core that was glued on to the wood that controls the elevators movement. The glas/foam is what is broken off, the wood is still in place on the henges. The wood is a little split the first few inches (maybe only 2) at the very end towards the outside. Since everything else is good I figured there must be a way to just do a new elevator on that side. Since I know metal (BD-4 building) I figured I could also use some of my 2024 T3 alumn cut into the shape needed, and epoxy it on to a foam wedge cut the correct shape and then epoxy/screw the metal onto the wood. Figured the combonation of screws and epoxy might do the trick to keep it on there. Thoughts? Joe On Sat, Dec 25, 2010 at 5:35 PM, Mark Langford <m...@n56ml.com> wrote: > Yes, the horizontal stabilizer spars are normally epoxied to plywood > bulkheads that also capture the vertical stabilizer spars. It will be a > pain to detach, and even worse will be that you'll have to get creative on > how to get the new elevator past the aft vertical stab spar to install it. > Unless you basically destroy the vertical stab, you'll have to make the > elevator in two pieces and then epoxy or bolt them together to install the > halves (less than optimal). Not very palatable in my book, but given that > your elevator looks like it's broken in half anyway, you are already in > that > boat. > > I was going to point you to http://www.n56ml.com/misc.html (about a fourth > of the way down) to show how I fastened my horizontal stab to the fuselage, > rather than wood, so that's a viable method of reattaching a new h/s if you > butcher up the spruce in the fuselage, but you've still got the elevator > problem. > > I've fretted over a lot of similar problems while building my plane, and > what I usually found to work best is simply get out the reciprocating saw > and cut away all offending material and start over. Leave the vertical stab > spars in place, but everything horizontal ought to go. You could leave the > leading edge of the vertical stab there to keep from having to reform it, > then build a new h/s and elevator assembly and slip it into the v/s spar > slot, fasten with aluminum angle like I did mine (or wood, if you were > careful and didn't damage it during the surgery), reglass the vertical > stab, > and you're done. Sounds like a real ordeal, but it has more appeal to me > than trying to scab something on to the split h/s spar, and you're going to > have to put a new elevator in there anyway. > > While you're at it, you could make the horizontal stab/elevator a little > longer and help with the pitch sensitivity of the KR2. See > http://www.n56ml.com/kht.html for an overview on how to build that > assembly, > and using the "new" NACA 63009 airfoil to improve effectiveness slightly > (templates link on that page). Also see http://www.n56ml.com/kvs.html for > a > lot of details on what's under the skin of the vertical stab along with > some > fabrication and integration photos and narrative.. > > That's what I'd do with that mess. Just get the Sawzall out and try not to > hurt anything you're going to keep. I've found that a beer first helps > ease > the pain. > > You're welcome to perform this operation some other way and prove me wrong, > however... > > Mark Langford > ML at N56ML.com > website at http://www.N56ML.com <http://www.n56ml.com/> > -------------------------------------------------------- > > >
