[Struts1]

I have been thinking on when to add CF skin on center wing's bottom as that's the only section left to do in terms of construction, rest is all come except for few small things and then installation of all electrical components and retracts and there air-line set up.
So tonite, i'm going to start working once again on adding flower flaps in one of 2 flaps bays, this will take couple of days to do as i'll be making a special jig or fixture to make 2 identical angled, length, diameter holes on each side of the flap bay for telescopic CF sliding rods could be mounted and then hooked up to the LE of the flap panel.

The function of these rods is to carry flap panels out to TE of the wing in straight angle and then pull back in the bay. It's the sliding aluminum actuator in the middle of the bay that will slide on a pin at a location on rear spar for it to pivot as flaps are pushed out and then retracted.. Retraction will be done by 2 nyrods hooked up to Hitec Sail servo that will turn 180 degrees in each direction to push and pull in these flap panels width of the bays that is 3" wide.

[Mark_WCE]

I really like the simplicity of the design, though as is seen in your threads, it certainly took a lot of planning and trials.

I do have one question/concern - aside from the rods, which on their own will certainly give stability, but under the forces of flight (airflow specifically), is there a risk of the flaps twisting in the airflow and becoming stuck as they deploy, are fully deployed or on the retraction?

I picture a thin (aluminum) track for the leading edge of the flaps to follow with a small guide post mounted to the leading edge of the flaps as guides to ensure that they are following the correct path. Might be overkill (and Struts, you've seen my plans, there tends to be 'over-redundancy' in them).

Far be it for me to sit here and be an "arm chair designer", I am just (very reapectfully) curious as to how you overcame the chance of these long and narrow fowler flaps from potentially twisting.

Looking forward to progress updates,

Cheers,
Mark.

[Struts1]

Thanks Mark, as i mentioned it to you few times that try to keep things as simple as you can, makes models simple to operate and do maintenance at the same time in long run.

As for flaps, well I could see a remote possibility that they might bind if something got jammed up in between the tubes, which is highly likely never to happen but still, as for twisting, no they never will as they are made with wood n composite material. First one I made has fiberglass spar in the middle and balsa ribs with balsa leading edge. 2nd flap is fully composite built with fiberglass ribs and CF spar, both flaps will get fiberglass top skin panel. I will be adding CF tow on diagonal angles between the ribs to make sure they will never twist or warp.

[Mark_WCE]

Aaahhhhhhh.... Makes excellent sense now! Thanks Struts. Again, not to Doug you, but to just clear things up in my mind.

Cheers,
Mark.

[Struts1]

Model's update:

Left side flap panel has been installed in the flaps bay and have been dry hinged with 2 telescopic sliding CF tubes. I used Robart medium size point hinges to connect flap panel with CF tubes. Both point hinges's one end had to be shaved down so these ends would fit inside the tubes diameter. I liked the way this fit turned out as it was nice and snug fit.....Next is to make a slot for the slider as the back outboard corner for the aluminum flap slider to pass through the rear spar!. This has to be done right other wise risk of cracking the rear spar will become higher. This slider will slide on a pin mounted on the spar at a strategic location to operate properly under motion without getting into bind issues later on. After this, I will go back on to right side's flap bay and do the same to it in order to have both flaps ready to function at the same time.

[Struts1]

Originally Posted by Struts1

Geez man what a memory recall you posted here, yeah I was the same specially when building those special competition class plastic models, micro-mesh came in handy and it had sanding cloth all the way to 12000 grit!.....I never used 12K cloth but i did as far as 8000 grit cloth on my 1/144 scale Pepsi Concorde model that won Silver medal and certificate at a IPMS southern Ontario competition many years ago......Yup dipping those canopies in Future floor wax...ha ha ha , actually it worked really well.

Mark,

Here are couple pics from many many moons ago of my Revell 1/144 Pepsi Concorde and 1/200 Saudi DC3 models I made and entered them in competition.

Concorde took a year to make as that type of paint took months to fully cure and DC3 was 3 day project!

[Struts1]

Flap panel from left side was pulled out of the bay, presently it is getting leading edge and top skin panel glued on it. After LE panel is glued on, a vertical slot will be made at the location through which flap slider actuator will pass through and be glued with the one of the rib inside the flap panel. I'm also considering to make lite ply rib, glue it on the bottom sink as other were and then drill couple small holes, add blind nuts and screw flap slider on to the rib, this way if in future flap is needed to be removed, all I'll do is to undo screw and remove the panel.... there will be access hatch made on the upper skin of the flaps to access inside.

[Struts1]

Had to make hard wood or laminated lite ply hinge blocks to connect flaps with telescopic and nyrod push/pull rods. This took a while to get them right as I had to make a gauge to copy right LE angle and curve on to the blocks to sand them to make them fit inside the flaps, these also follow exact leading edge curve. There are 4 of these hing blocks in each flap panel.

[Struts1]

Yesterday, spent 10 hrs working on one flap panel, I was having binding issues and not enough pivoting of the flap when full installation was done. As it turned out main guide pin was not at right spot, one of the telescopic CF rods was bit out of alignment, aluminum slider was getting jammed up as it's channel wasn't made at right anglr. Plus before all this, flap's LE skin, hinge blocks were made, glued and then LE skin was glued on LE part of the ribs. Nothing short of all sorts of issues. Aluminum slider's design was also modified as it wasn't contacting on ther bottom skin panel of the flap from inside....

Finally at slightly past midnight I took sigh of relief after all was fixed and flap started to slide out and push in flawlessly and easily....

[Struts1]

Pictures from yesterday are uploaded...^^