Buzzard Droppings June 2002

(Continued from page 6)

this area. Fuel proof the firewall and ALL exposed wood (and foam if gasoline is the intended fuel) in the engine compartment with thinned epoxy, urethane paint or equivalent.
Verify the glue joints on all landing gear blocks and wing attachment wood.  Reinforce these with angle stock.
Check the fuel tank compartment floor.  If this model has a trike landing gear, you may want to reinforce the floor with plywood or  thin hardwood material to prevent a hard landing from allowing the front landing gear from damaging this area.
If this is a tail dragger, verify the strength of the tail wheel attachment area.  This may need to be strengthened with plywood.  An extra hinge on the bottom of the rudder may also help.
The plywood servo trays in the kits tend to be too thin to allow more than a few threads of the servo mounting screws to be captured.  Doubling the thickness with plywood makes a better tray.  Also, THE CUTOUTS FOR THE SERVOS ARE ALMOST ALWAYS TOO SMALL!  Take the time to ENLARGE THEM before gluing the tray into the fuselage.  Applying a thin hardwood strip along the sides of the fuselage across the top of the tray sides will help this from ever coming loose.
Control Rods:
Make sure to soak adhesive into the heat shrink of all supplied push rods.
Substitute the wood pushrods with graphite or arrow shafts (even better). Use 4-40 hardware rather than the supplied 2-56 or small metric ones.
Make sure that the flexible nylon push rods are braced every 10 to 12 inches or less.
Make sure to put some form of keeper on all clev

ises (fuel tubing, etc). urethane paint or equivalent.
Verify the glue joints on all landing gear blocks Control Horns:
Make sure to align the holes in the control horns with the hinge line.
CA the control horn mounting holes in the control surface or reinforce the control surface with thin plywood.  Apply CA to any nuts used to capture the screws.
Wheels:
File or grind "flats" on the wire gear to receive the wheel collar setscrew.
If the wheel collars use Phillips or flathead screws, verify wheel clearance or replace with Allen cup screws.
If the front gear on a trike setup has a weak spring, replace the front gear with the better "FULTZ" double spring type.
On our grass fields, it is easier to take off on something like Sullivan 3-inch SkyLite wheels than kit wheels that are smaller and/or heavier.
On tail draggers, a spring type tail wheel assembly works better for steering than one that attaches directly to the rudder.
Limit the nose wheel travel so that it is MUCH LESS than the movement of the rudder.
Props & Spinners:
Paint prop tips white for safety.
Balance the prop.
Make sure to ENLARGE THE SPINNER HOLES to clear the prop blades.  The blades MUST NOT TOUCH  the spinner! 

Next month, the final piece of this article, engines and other stuff.