Ok, I hope this makes sense.

I saw this on Windy's foam wing tapes and Crist R does a variation also. You take the factory pin out of your hinges and insert the hinge halves in the wing and flaps. Put your flap into possition on the flap horn and line up the hinge halves. You use one piece of music wire and connect all the hinges on one flap, bend a elbow on the outboard end of the music wire and cut wire to desired length and insert a copper or whatever metal tube in the flap end and insert the music wire to secure.

Now Windy sands a V down the length of the flap so your hinges and music wire stay recessed.

I'll hunt up the tape if you want to see it.

I think what you need is a variation of the flap horn clips.  At the end of the flap there is an open gap for the flap horn leg to slip into.  Of course the flap horn is anchored to the trailing edge inside the fuselage so it doesn't move side to side.  In other words the control system is in the central part of the wing that is already in the fuse.  But when the wing panels are slipped onto the main mounting brackets the flap and flap horn leg are lined up.  I know pictures would be explaining a lot more, but, I think I have confused you enough.  Maybe the ones that been done already will post pictures of their set up.  Having fun, DOC Holliday

John,

To join the flap to the horn you need to make a small three sided box in the end of the flap (see attached flap pict). I do this by making a 1/2" wide root rib for the flap out of rock hard balsa. You will need to use three laminations of balsa with the slot cut out of the middle layer. You then line the box with 1/64 ply and epoxy the ply in place using the same material as the flap horn wrapped in waxed paper and fit tightly into the slot. When dry, shape the rib to suit and build your flap. The sheeting of the flap goes over the rib and thus encapsulates it.

You need to make and dry install your flap horn and when you are satisfied with the fits take it apart and install the wing center section in the fuselage (with both panels attached!). Now install the flap horn. When dry, you can mount the wing panels and use masking tape to hold the flaps in position on the wings. Make sure the flap horn is properly bedded in the slot. Center everything up and ensure equal clearances on both sides of the fuselage. Now carefully mark the position of the hinges (this will need to be exact!) and complete the hinging process for a dry fit. Once you have the flaps hinged and moving freely on the wing panels, glue the hinges in permanently. A 1/64th end cap on the root end of the flap strengthens and protects the end of the flap. Now you can build the little flap fairings at the root end of the flaps.

Kim.

I saw this on Windy's foam wing tapes and Crist R does a variation also.

  As near as I can tell, Paul Walker was the first to do it this way. I started ripping him off about 15 years ago and this is one of the many things I unabashedly stole from him. Paul did it for his removable-wing airplane.

    I think it has a very slight theoretical advantage over the method Kim shows, if only because you can put an end cap on the end of the box and enclose it, making it somewhat stronger. You can't do that if the flap is permanently attached to the wing.  But I did have a problem with the end cap when my horn clips got soaking wet at the 2006 NATs. The wood around the horn swelled, and the end caps broke loose and jammed up the controls. I found this at about midnight between qualifying rounds. Fortunately I had the removable hinge pin and was able to get the flaps off to fix it with a lot of help from my buddies.  The rest, as they say, is history. Bob McDonald wasn't so lucky, a bunch of stuff swelled up and jamed the controls and he had to withdraw.

    If I had done it the way Kim shows, I would have been able to seal up the slot a lot better and maybe it wouldn't have been a problem. i got to see Sergey Belko's 75 airplane very close up, since I helped him come up with some spare control parts that were damaged in customs, and it was like Kim's.


      Brett