ARF Help

Got a couple of ARF Cardinal questions.

If I mount the tail skid like in the instructions will it be strong enough to hold an LA .40 on a stooge?

The lead out connection to the bell crank is a 1/4" long piece of tubing crimped in 2 places with a pair of wire cutters. Will this hold or, should I cut the wing open and re-do it?

How much of a wing warp is too much? A little disappointed about this. The wing is twisted a good 1/8" from one end to the other (left trailing edge up of course). The wing structure is really stiff, I don't know if twisting and tightening the monokote will hold it straight. Can this be compensated for by tweeking the flaps?

The fuslage covering wraps around into the cut out for the wing, should I trim this back for a better glue joint? The instructions say to just zap it with thin CA. It's a nice fit but, not that nice. I think I'm going to stuff some filled epoxy in there to seal and strenghten the joint.

Any tricks for cutting the covering off the wing without cutting the planking?

You can cut the covering without hurting the sheeting by running the tip of a hot soldering iron across it. Then put a flexible ruler on the edge to hold the good covering down tight and pull the strip off to expose the wood. Don't press down much with the soldering iron, the hot tip will cut through the covering without hurting the wood.

LAST EDITED ON Oct-05-04 AT 08:53 AM (CDT)
 
Several of these are flying around here, and I believe that you are worrying about stuff of little consequence.....

The tailwheel hold down is okay....I prefer a stooge that holds the tail and flops down at launch.....

The leadout crimping is certainly adequate.....I was watching one fly in a heavy wind and there were no problems...Windy has a video of the one that he built, btw.

I am surprized at the warp....you might fool around with a monocoat guy and see if you can tighten a panel, otherwise put a tab on the outboard flap.....they all seem to want a little more tip weight anyhow.

See Ya

Make sure you tell John about the warp, he'll want to know. One of our local guys has a profile Cardinal and the wing is warped nearly 1/2" over the length of the TE.

1/2" wow, what's he gona' do about that? Will Brodak take it back?

Gussing the wings are built on a jig and come out pretty straight, the warps were probably caused when it was covered. I would bet the wing can be straightned with a heat gun and a little help from a friend to hold/twist the wing.

Giffy I have about 25 flights on my ARF Cardinal and each flight it gets better. The last changes were to lift the tank 1/8 inch and I de compressed the LA 40. But to answer your questions Add 2 self tapping screws to the tail wheel and epoxy the cover .Leadouts look good to me I have seen a lot worse at the field and all held up.When I put the Cardinal together one flap was almost an oz heavier so that was my out board flap, and its easy to tweak the flaps to get the plane level.The moore wood to wood on the fuse joint is better I trimed the Monocote, and after I added a 3/8 strip of fiberglass to the wing before I slid the wing in to make a nice tight joint. Just use a new blade and carefully trim the center of the wing. I also pre CA this Joint with thin CA wing and fuse.And after all is dry and set I put an epoxy fillet on all fuse to wing and stab joints. As to date one 1st place ARF at Flushing with the Cardinal . And one 1st Place at the Spring GSCB Meet with My Kit built Cardinal 41 oz. The ARF is 48 oz. SEE YA NEAL