Gap sealing

I'm looking for tips on how to seal the gaps on ailerons. I have an overweight Citabria which tip stalls in a most entertaining manner, however, I'd like a little less entertainment when coming in to land and have set up flaps (flapperons) to lower the stall speed a little. I also want to seal the gaps on the ailerons to help clean up the wing too.

any advice on how to do this ? (gap seal) I use Mylar tape on my glider but I think that would be too much for the servo's to handle on the Citabria.

have been using flaps to land it, the increase in speed with flaps helps (saves faffing with trim)

Thanks in advance

Roy

Reply to
Roy
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Cits are notorious for that. Use the same color/type of covering you covered the wing with. Cut a piece about 1" wide and the length of the ailerons. Iron it to the trailing edge, flex the aileron all the way away from the piece, and iron it to the aileron. Tuck the slack into the hinge line. Dr.1 Driver "There's a Hun in the sun!"

Reply to
Dr1Driver

Oops.... Wrong URL on the second pic... Should be (

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Heck, Take a look at the whole gallery.... (

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) It's got a slew of full-scale Citabria pix that I used in detailing my model...

Cheers,

Bill

Reply to
Bill Fulmer

What I'm doing is dropping flap and not adjusting trim. the center of pressure on the wing moves back and the plane speeds up (a little) use throttle to adjust glideslope (more like plummet slope, but that's splitting hairs) I want to clean up the wing to get the whole wing further away from a stall as the plane comes in through the wind shear / low level turbulence at our (always windy) site.

My feeling is to go with the one side only (which I hadn't thought of) and do it to the top side. ?

Thanks Gents

Reply to
Roy

Hi, I just use plain old clear packing tape. Cut a strip to length and put on the bottom of each surface, deflect the control to maximum and push the creased tape centerline into the gap then press down the edges with your fingers as you go. Good clear tape will barely be visible over your covering and on the bottom it won't even be seen that much. It is also easier to remove than iron on covering. The tapes I have used will even shrink a bit for you on low low heat to dress it up and tack it down more smoothly if you like. Good luck :)

Reply to
NewsReader

| > Sealing the ailerons is a wise thing to do, and you only need seal one | > side, to prevent air passage. | >

| > But if your ailerons are scale "barndoor" ailerons typical of the | > Citabria, please DO NOT set them up as flaperons. This can cause | > tip stalls even worse than you experienced before.

What he said. He's right on here.

| > Look at ant full scale ship. Flaps are installed INBOARD, and operate | > EQUALLY, to add lift at low airspeed, AND to help insure the inboard | > portion> of the wing stalls first... | >

| > If you drop both ailerons at the outboard portion of the wing, this will | > effective create lift (and a higer AOA), allowing you to slow the ship | > down and still maintain flight... But should you use aileron at this lower | > airspeed to correct a bank, you will "unbalance" that lift and cause the | > high wing to drop, most often with disasterous results.

It's not so much that you'll unbalance it, it's that you can easily stall the wing that's supposed to go up, and the stall will happen on the outside (thanks to the flaperons being down) so it'll violently rotate in the wrong direction, usually leading to a crash.

| What I'm doing is dropping flap and not adjusting trim. the center | of pressure on the wing moves back and the plane speeds up (a | little) use throttle to adjust glideslope (more like plummet slope, | but that's splitting hairs)

Actually, the flaperons should make the plane fly *slower* by increasing lift and drag.

| I want to clean up the wing to get the whole wing further away from a stall

The best way to do this is to go faster.

| as the plane comes in through the wind shear / low level turbulence | at our (always windy) site.

Then what you need to do is land faster, not slower.

On a windy day, landing upwind, as your plane gets closer to the ground, the wind usually slows down (the drag of the ground slows it down), decreasing your airspeed. In extreme cases, this can cause your plane to stall and crash. It's best to have more airspeed than you think you need when landing in the wind.

(Landing downwind, the airspeed increases as your plane settles down, which is what makes your plane `balloon' down the runway into the trees beyond :) )

Also, with more airspeed, you're less likely to have a gust or lull in the wind send your plane out of control or into a spin.

| My feeling is to go with the one side only (which I hadn't thought of) and | do it to the top side. ?

Doesn't matter. All you need to do is stop the air from flowing through, which you can do with clear tape, monokote, whatever. Doesn't matter if it's the top or the bottom or both sides ...

Do seal your gaps. As for the flaperons, be very careful with them -- they can easily cause more problems then they solve. You may want to try spoilerons instead -- where you put the ailerons up rather than down. That will increase drag but decrease lift, so you'll counteract with increased elevator. Your plane will fly a little faster than before, and descend a good deal faster ... great for burning off altitude. (Not as good as full crow, but still good.)

Reply to
Doug McLaren

I cut the sealing strips so they do not cover the hinges. I am very careful not to iron the CA hinges. If you get them too hot, they become brittle.

-- Mike Norton

Reply to
Mike Norton

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