Yo!  Steve,

I don't think so..... See picture below!

Jim...Yeah, that was about the right timeframe, and I believe exactly. You can see that the tips of the flaps are hinged. I believe that the black stripe may be tape, fixing the tip of the flap back to the main section, or may be camo for the split line. I think the one that PW and I had looked at was the DayGlo Pink one, tho this may be the same one, pre-fading. I remember saying something about being able to see its flight path after closing my eyes... an aura of sorts. The actual day was very windy, at the turbulent West Lot at Boeing Space Center. I also commented about the smoke trail blowing around made the pattern appear less perfect than it really was.  His comeback was that less castor and more synthetic would improve that. Can't say if he actually did that.

Dennis (and Ted and Randy etc.)...I was also thinking that clipping the flap tips on an ARF makes maybe more sense than on a scratch built model, unless the flaps are stripped and stiffened with CF, FG, etc. The reduced tip area(s) should allow the rest of the flap to become more effective, with increased angular deflection. I'm not sure I'm explaining this clearly...but the tips of long/soft flaps would not be effective. Getting rid of some of the flexi-flap would make the rest of the flap stiffer and thus more effective. Seems to me that more effective controls would reduce control load, but could be wrong. Another thought is the control ratios.  If you're running 1:1 controls on a reasonably light plane, then reducing the flap area or flap movement, might both reduce control loads, remembering that line tension is a function of weight and speed.

The one thing that always bugged me about flaps, is that when you deploy the flaps (up or down), the   thrustline is fighting the turn. Work on that, wouldja? I had an idea, many years ago, about putting a boat u-joint on the prop shaft and pivoting it up/down, linked to the controls. Finally decided that it would take too much line tension to operate it, but +/- 5 degrees would make a huge difference. If anything would make a stunter do a 5' radius, that would be it, IMO.

Even if this thread stops now...it has been very educational, and I appreciate it. None of this  , or  , or even  , either! Kewl! Good jobs! Steve

I was flying a Sig Magnum and the plastic covering came off the top of the flaps but didn’t come off the flaps trailing edge. It was just flopping in the breeze the length of the trailing edge. The controls reversed up was down and down was up the plane could only climb and dive slightly.
Willis