CyA Hinges Failing?

I found a new way to cause this failure. I sealed the hinge line, ironing the covering into the hinge line. It took two flights to break.

I now seal hinge lines only between the hinges, making sure to keep the iron away from the hinges. They have been working fine ever since.

-- Mike Norton

I have not met a serious IMAC competitor who uses them on a regular basis. I have NEVER seen them used on a turbine. Both of those applications would benifit from a tight hinge line but neithor uses CA hinges. I wonder why. . . .

i wonder what a serious imac competitor looks like? is there such a thing as a not so serious imac competitor? and is there such a thing as a imac non-competitor? how about a serious competitor who doesn't fly imac? seems to me that there are plenty of those, too. so assuming that you have walked the flightline of every IMAC contest, and identified the "serious" competitors from the non so serious, you state that not one of them uses CA hinges...and we are supposed to believe that? THAT'S SO FUNNY!

I have been using CA hinges since Radio South came out with them in the 80's....believe they were blue then. I have also used other brands...Sig for one , and in 8 x 11 sheets from an office supplies store. So far , I have never had a failure. I have used them on everything from a trainer to Quickie 500's with a Nelson , to 1/4 scale. Also used them on my 1/4 Midgets. I'm in agreement with the others on excess CA at the hinge line getting brittle and causing failures. The crayon idea sounds good.

Ken Day

Nice job of trying to put words in my mouth, too bad you twisted several statements up and made up your own story. Read what I SAID, not what you wanted to see.

I will restate it a little more clearly for you to reduce your confusion with the english language.

I would guess a serious IMAC competitor would travel to events. It would seem that the not so serious doesn't. None of the folks I know that travel to IMAC events uses CA hinges.

traveling makes an imac competitor serious? no, winning makes an imac competitor serious. there are plenty of people who drive distances to "compete" because they enjoy it, and never get past the middle of the pack in the standings. obviously, you don't know that because you aren't even a not so serious competitor. the fact of the matter is, that CA hinges cannot withstand the heavy torsional vibrations that occur on larger airplanes, and that fact has been known for many years by the giant scale community, sport or competiton.

I think that you haven't been paying much attention. Many long time modelers have expressed here that they have NOT had the problems you cite. I certainly haven't in over 20 years of using them.

Does that mean that properly installed and used they are not reliable?

They have been used on hundreds of SWRA warbird racers as well. I have not heard of one failure attributed to them in thousands of races.

It is clear that you would rather pick a fight that model. Have fun playing with yourself.

Thanks, I will. You might want to spend a few minutes with a 3rd grade grammar book.

Ken, I fear I'd get a funny look (or worse) if I walked into an Office Depot and said, "Do you have any 8 x 11 sheets of CA hinge material?" What exactly do you ask for? :-)