You've never had my friend Blake fly one of your planes He'll find the weak spot in very short order. Not that he tries to purposely hurt a plane in the air, but if it's not Blakeproofed then you'll be doing some repairs later. Trust me, I know! He's also a NATS pattern champ and he prefers a superior hinge line arrangement and CA hinges are a distant second when providing a solid hinge line that has very mimimal friction. Been modeling for 43 years and I've had some CA hinges fail pulling all the balsa with it and have seen several other CA hinge failures before. Once I switched to pin hinges= problem solved. I even use pin hinges on our pattern foamies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsQ5hE9B-TY

Originally Posted by dcronkhite

The CA hinges work fine. Not sure why you'd want to change to something else honestly. In my 35 years of flying R/C I've never had a CA hinge come loose.

Check also the anti-rotation pins on the stabs. I lost one of these after a few flights when one of those broke loose and the stab rotated. This happened under one mistake high and resulted in an uncontrolled dive for the corn. I have since sold the remains and am now happy with my Osiris. Good flying! Dana

A CA hinge pulling all the balsa with it is not a failure of the hinge but a failure of the balsa. No other type of hinge would have acted any differently unless you pinned through it with a toothpick or something.

Pin hinges are nice and with the jig they sell, a breeze to install (except the glue, you have to be careful and lube the joint) but I also find CA hinges to work as well as necessary, I've had none pull out...

Jack

I don't usually use the flat pin hinges unless it's a 40%er. I prefer the round pin hinges. They usually penetrate through to the inside of the wing. I use Sumo glue and it makes a mushroom head as it expands in the open. Not going to get pulled out. My CA hinge failures always pulled a plug of balsa out with it but didn't penetrate the other side. Never had a pin hinge fail yet. But you gotta use what works for you. I like to make my planes as smooth as possible. That way I can't blame the plane, just my crappy flying! LOL

Originally Posted by dcronkhite

A CA hinge pulling all the balsa with it is not a failure of the hinge but a failure of the balsa. No other type of hinge would have acted any differently unless you pinned through it with a toothpick or something.

Finally got some more time to work on the wind.

Just a couple of observations so far. The kit seems nicely built. Only had a couple of wrinkles in the covering. The wheels were not even close to being round might see what else I can use. We fly off grass and it's usually pretty rough on wheel pants. Have found some of the hardware to be bad. Some of the screws were not machined correctly, so I've had to replace some.

Don't believe the "full size" servo note for the wings, my 821's didn't fit, you'll need shallow servos like the 9411's (price difference is a big one too if want to keep it lower cost)...

Jack

Put another 5 flights on the Wind this morning with the following changes:
Added in 1 degree of down thrust
Moved the rudder servo to the tail

Big change in the overall feel. Uplines are dead straight now. Rudder feels more locked in as well. Still not happy with the yaw tracking though. I think the landing gear attachments are too flexible or are moving around in flight. Going to take them off for the next few flights and see if it helps.

The airplane is definitely getting better though with each change..

When I had my Wind-S 50E, I put a bead of silicon between the LG attachments and the fuse which did the trick. What I wish I had done was add CA or some other glue to the anit-rotation pins on the stabs. One failed and the Wind went down into the corn. Good idea to check these carefully so that one or both stab does not accidentally rotate out of position in-flight. Good Flying! Dana

I'm installing these aluminum hubbed wheels :

http://www.maxxprod.com/mpi/mpi-29.html

Very light and stiff with multiple hub adaptors. They work great on jets, pattern and 3D planes.

[QUOTE=RCBRUSKI65;17923510] The wheels were not even close to being round might see what else I can use. We fly off grass and it's usually pretty rough on wheel pants.

Switched my canopy attachment over to rare-earth magnets yesterday. No more screws there. Now if I could just find a metric thumbscrew for the wings, I could make this a no-tools airplane!

Got my first few flights on the WindS @ SEFF today, what a sweet flying plane this one is!

Jack

Nice-wish I was there this year. On the plus side looks like I'll be going next year with a few new designs SEFF pics please! By the way, if you're ever in O-town-stop by Graves RC Hobbies if you haven't been there already. If I'm not working in the airplane section I'll be in helis.

Got some more assembly done.