Hi:

     I damaged the outer wing on my Combat Streak about 33 years ago and I have not been able to determine what is wrong with it.

     The plane was hanging by he leadouts when the nail holding the leadouts came loose  permitting the plane to damage the outer wing when it hit the basement floor.

     I removed the covering and repaired what I saw was damaged and recovered the wing.  All looked great! The next flight, when the plane went inverted, the plane came accross the circle about head heigth.  When I went to flying the corrrect way with the canopy up, the plane flew great.  However, every time that I go inverted, the plane wants to decapitate me!

    I guess that there is a warp in the outer wing but I can not see any difference between the two wings!  The stab and elevator are correctly aligned so what could be causing this?

    Before I remove the covering on the outboard wing, is there a way that I may determine if the wing is crooked?

    How may I corrrect this problem? The plane is a great airplane when performing as it should!

                                                                                                                     Tia,

                                                                                                                     Frank

This has been suggested many times, by me and others.

To really remove a wing warp, put a wet towel in the microwave until it steams.  Wrap it around the bent wing and use books or weights to pull the wing in the direction you need.  Leave this for a couple hours and the warp is gone.

Floyd

Don't even bother trying to see a warp.  A warp isn't the only thing that can induce a roll.  Bad airfoil shapes, especially near either tip, flaps not even, etc.  The plane has a bad right roll.  Twist the wing to give left aileron and then iron it and hold it until it cools(assuming plastic film).  Other coverings may take more extreme measures like pouring steaming it, pouring boiling water on the wing, etc.  Twist the right trailing edge down, the left trailing edge up.  Fly the plane and very carefully get it upside down, or at least up high where you can start an outside and see gets light on the lines and still have room enough to recover before it really goes ape.

Phil C

Don't even bother trying to see a warp.  A warp isn't the only thing that can induce a roll...

OK.  So, Phil has a point that yes, indeed, before you're done you should just twist the damned wing to roll the plane out inverted.

However I would still check for a warp first.  If you do the check that Brett and I are both recommending (in different words -- as usual, Brett has accomplished the job more directly) and one wing or the other is warped to roll it in while inverted, then start by getting that straight and proceed on to Phil's suggestion of carefully trying it out (you should always be careful the first flight after one of these adjustments anyway).

If you don't see any warp, or if you fix the visible warp and it still comes in while inverted, then repeat the pragmatist's mantra as many times as necessary*, and just put some twist into the thing wing.  Or tape on a thin metal tab, or something.

* The Pragmatist's Mantra should only ever need to be repeated once, and goes like this: "Oh to hell with it!"

  Not really. If you don't know what is warped, you may be able to get it to not roll into the circle, but you could end up putting compensating warps in both wings. As you note, the goal is to fix the root cause, not just slap band-aids on it.

    It occurs to me that the warp is either massive, and/or there isn't enough tip weight. One crude solution is to just put in a large amount of tip weight, so it will at least stay out on the lines in both directions, then try to diagnose the problem. It should be a very simple matter to see, however, if it is this bad.

I wouldn't go putting band-aids on it until it was clear that the root cause just wasn't to be found.  But if I just could not find why it was misbehaving, then yes, I'd go ahead and slap on band-aids as necessary to get in the air again (and I'd probably start building another plane).

The ton of tip weight sounds like a good idea -- as long as it's removed once the problem has been dealt with.

I believe Walter Umland offered this version of the Flite Streak (Combat Streak) a few years back. He may well still have the cutting files.

Hi Ty,

Walter DID offer the Combat Streak so I am pretty sure he has the files.  I hope he is fully recovered and he *might* cut a kit if asked nicely.

BIG Bear
RNMM/AMM

      Hi Bill et al:

      Yes, the weight is in the outboard wingtip.

       Everything looks straight and aligned.  I will fly it again soon to see if it still comes in at me. Lol It is one of the planes that has hung in my attic for three decades.  The heat-cold cycles has stress relived the airplane.

       Thanks for all of the replies.

                                                                                                                          Frank

Frank,

All good advice. But here's my 2 cents worth. Get a 1/2' SQ. stick about 4" long and cut it in half. (two 2" pieces) Place double sided tape on them. Stick them to the TE (one at the tip and one at the root) and sight from the front until both (Hopefully) blocks are tangent to the top surface of the wing. I check my wings this way because I have vision problems. Works great and simple!

Second: Do you have any engine offset?

Third; Is the elev. hinge line parallel with the wing?

Good luck and if this doesn't help I'd suggest putting it in the garbage can and starting over!

Jerry