| Hint |
Description |
Author |
| Save your exhaust
deflector |
A good way to keep
from loosing your exhaust deflector is to
put three small dots of JB Weld on the
exhaust tube. That way when you zip tie the
deflector on it won't slide off. |
Robert Reed |
| Isolate the Antenna |
I found that the easiest way to isolate
the receiver antenna inside the cabin was to
run the antenna through a drinking straw and
glue the straw to the inside. There's no
chance that a servo will touch or damage the
antenna inside the plane. |
Roger Hunckler |
| Stronger Styrofoam |
A great way to strengthen up Styrofoam
wings on any park flyer, without adding a
lot of weight, is to just add strips of
cellophane tape. It's cheap and easy, and
especially durable to high-speed impact,
strain and strengthening the wings in the
cold. |
Preston Rice |
| Small Parts Finder |
If you fly off grass or a dirt strip,
and you drop a small screw or bolt, it win
naturally disappear from the naked eye. You
have a made-to-order recovery tool in your
electric starter that has a very powerful
magnet. Just move it over the area where the
small part dropped. Be sure not to allow
dirt or other foreign objects to get into
the starter motor. |
Robert Wells |
| Sanding Wing Skins |
When building wing skins, try edge
gluing the sheets together with cellulose
base glue, like Sigment or Ambroid. This
type of glue has the same sanding
consistency as balsa wood and eliminates the
hard glue ridge that forms at every seam
when other types of glues are used. |
George Jorge |
| Brass Bushing Installation |
Do you have a problem aligning and
pushing those four little brass bushings
into the servos' rubber grommets when
installing a new servo? You can use a
Phillips head jewelers screwdriver as a
slick insertion tool. Just slide the bushing
over the screwdriver blade, and then use the
screwdriver as a guide and insertion tool.
The same technique can be used to
effortlessly drive the rubber grommets into
the servo mounting slots, too. |
Aidon Mazzoni |
| Cardboard Organizer |
Here's a great way to organize your work
area. Take those cardboard tubes left over
from your MonoKote and cut them into various
lengths. Glue or tape them together like a
pipe organ. Glue them vertically to a piece
of wood to close off the holes on one end.
Now you can set it on top of your work table
to store your knives, pencils, screw-
drivers, etc. |
Jim Herrmann |
| Cheap Filler |
If you want to fill a gap and you're
wondering what to use, go over to the
clothes dryer, get some lint, and mix it
with epoxy. It works great, and you can’t
beat the price. |
Alan Cox |
| Cutting Control Cable |
Stranded control cable is difficult to
cut neatly. Use a small amount of solder on
the spot you are going to cut, then use a
wire cutter, resulting in a quick clean cut. |
Oscar Lovrak |
| Sealing Trim Sheets |
When sealing the gap on control
surfaces, MonoKote trim sheets work well.
The only drawback here is the pre-applied
adhesive. After a few trips to the flying
field the sticky adhesive tends to attract
dirt, grass, etc. Here's an easy fix. After
all the gaps have been sealed with the trim
sheet, sprinkle baby powder on the remaining
exposed strip of adhesive. The baby powder
will stick to the trim sheet making the
exposed adhesive no longer effective. Now,
nothing will stick to the gap filling trim
sheet. |
Bobby Patterson |
| Building Boards |
An inexpensive, flat building board can
be made from 12 inch x 6 foot (or whatever
length is best for your building choices)
veneer particle board shelves, found at your
local Home Depot. You can use contact cement
to attach a 1/4 inch thick bulletin board
cork to the building side for pinning parts
in place. Making two of the 6 foot versions
allow wing halves or fuselages halves to be
built. Making two 12 inch x 2 foot versions
for stabs, ele- vators, rudders, etc allows
you to move the parts to a safe location to
dry. I have had this "modular" building
board setup for more than 15 years, and it
is still as flat as the day it was made! |
Jim Schmidt |
| Installing Pushrods |
One of the best ways to take some of the
friction out of pushrod installation,
especially where you have to make Some bends
in the plastic tubing, is to shoot a little
silicone spray into the plastic tube. When
the metal pushrod is installed and worked
back and forth a little (to spread the
silicone), it becomes very easy to move
through the plastic tube thus eliminating
pressure off the servo. This works
especially well for throttle installations. |
David Till |
| Drilling for Dowel Pins |
When drilling holes in the plywood of
your plane to accommodate wing hold down
dowel pins, it is sometimes difficult to get
them just the right size without some slop
in the hole. For example, if you were using
1/4 inch dowel pins you would need to use
the next size larger drill bit which is
normally 17/64. Not bad but a better way is
to drill the 1/4 inch hole, harden the hole
with CA and then enlarge it with a 1/4 inch
prop reamer available from Tower Hobbies.
This makes the hole just the right size and
a snug fitting dowel pin. This prop reamer
works with other sizes also. |
Gene Davis |
| Covering Schemes |
When thinking about covering your plane,
make the top of the wing and the bottom of
the wing two completely different colors or
schemes. This will reduce confusion in the
air as to the configuration (right-side up,
or upside down) of your plane. Also bright
colors show up better the further away you
get. |
Joseph A. Maggs |
| Secure Fuel Lines |
Secure fuel lines by cutting a small
piece of heat shrink tubing that has a
slightly larger diameter than the fuel line
you are using, and slip it over the fuel
line and fittings at the fuel tank, carb
fitting and muffler fitting. Apply heat with
a heat gun. Your fuel line will be a lot
less likey to come off mid flight with this
set up and is an inexpensive alternative to
using fuel clips. |
Darryl Cheatham |
| Muffler Plugs |
The little foam earplugs with a cord
between them are great for plugging muffler
outlets to keep oil from dripping on your
carpet. Cut each foam plug with an inch or
two of cord left on it. This way, you can
easily pull them out before the flight
session. |
Lingo Chang |
| Befter Grip |
To improve your grip on your
transmitter, especially during hot summer
months when your palms are more likely to
sweat, stick some handle wrap (the stuff
they use on tennis rackets) on parts of the
transmitter where you hold, you'll get a
better grip and it won't slip so much. |
Ernie A. Lee |
| MonaKote Ideas |
A roll of clear MonoKote is remarkably
useful for several purposes. A strip of it
will cover a hinge gap without interfering
with the color design. Also, have you ever
wanted to put a dry transfer or any other
kind of non-fuel proof decal, etc. on a
plane? Go ahead and put it on, and simply
iron a piece of clear MonoKote over the top. |
Chuck Kunce |
| Save Deflectors |
If you use an exhaust deflector to
protect your plane from oil residue, many
times you end up losing the deflector no
matter how you attach it, whether it's with
ties or twisted wire. A very simple method
to save your deflector in flight is to
simply tie a thin copper wire to one of the
tie wraps and then over to the pressure tap.
Very simple, but it has saved me 5
deflectors already! |
Waylon Ford |
| Safe Surface |
I have found that using a medium plush
bathroom rug, 24x36, with rubberized backing
on my bench, it makes a perfect surface for
sanding my wing or fuse without scratching,
denting, or sliding around. I can shake it
out and use it for covering later. If it
gets dirty I throw it in the wash. |
Lou Fox |
| Instrument Panel |
To make a custom, professional
instrument panel for your plane, do the
following: Using individually available
meter decals (fuel, altitude, etc.), layout
the desired instrument panel for your plane.
The decals may be glued or clear taped to a
white sheet of paper. Add an outline if
desired. Take the finished product to a
photo copy store and have a transparency
made. On the reverse side, color the
instruments as desired. Glue to the planes
instrument panel with canopy glue. This
technique produces a custom instrument panel
at minimal cost. |
James Hollingshead |
