Greetings fellow Soaring Fanatics,
I've designed and fabricated V-Tail Clamps for the R2 Hobbies Passer & Passer X sailplanes which would also work for other ships with top mounted tails with similar V-Tail angles. The total weight of the V-Tail Clamp +Plastic Bolts & Nuts is just 2.9g!

The basic plastic clamp is available for $7.50 +sh without hardware and $9.00 sh with plastic bolts and your choice of plastic or metal nuts.
I do accept Paypal and other arrangements can be made. PM me if interested.

View the full tutorial and download the PDF instructions here:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...6#post24192092

Happy Soaring,
-8th

Good as GOLD A+

What is the angle?

Hi 8thelephant from RCbobcat55 Great idea it's a winner. Just pm'd you for 2 of them for my dlg prototypes.

I PM'ed you for payment details, hope to get a pair of them....

These look like a fantastic idea!

One question, though. How can you insert them into the tail? The tabs that stick down into the stab are angled outward so that they are perpendicular to each stab half. If you drill holes into the stab to line up with the final position of the tabs, then you won't be able to insert this device into those holes. It makes sense to me that the tabs would have to be pointing straight down, so you can press the clamp straight down into the bottom of the V. Or are you able to just wiggle this thing into position by drilling slightly larger holes than necessary?

Did any of that make sense?

-Keith

Thanks Everyone!
I've replied to some of you on PM and in the main tutorial thread
The V-Tail Angle is 105.5˚ as that's what was measured on the Passer & Passer X fuselages.


As stated in the linked tutorial post, I'm able to make batches of 10+ units for other specific angles/models if enough people are interested. I do see a lot of ships with 110˚ tails out there, but am not sure if they already have resolutions for this.

Keith/kpeevyhouse, The 2 tail pieces are inserted one after the other, perpendicular to the prongs in the V-Tail Clamp. This makes for a secure mating between the 3 pieces and much easier drilling of holes. With that complete assembly, 2 bolts secure it to the fuselage.
From a structural point of view; 90˚ holes would end up very close to the center holes for the bolts which would leave less balsa between them. I had a tail-strike crash with the clamp attached and the V-Tail assembly stayed in tact w/ only plastic nuts sheared off. Had the prong holes been drilled parallel to the bolt holes, some balsa would have definitely been lost.

I do understand your concept of holes being drilled 90˚ with the whole unit assembled....and it's really really difficult to drill! I've tried. There's a tendency for the drill bit to stray at that severe angle; even with a drill press and pilot holes. The only solid reason I could see for doing this method is if you kept the tails taped together on their undersides and wanted to still be able to separate the clamp from them.
Hope this makes sense...?

Happy Soaring,
-8th

Ahhhh... makes sense now. You don't glue the tail pieces together first, and then try to insert the clamp. You leave the tail halves separated, then drill the holes, then assemble the loose pieces.

Got it!


I guess I should have actually clicked on the thread with the instructions.

Great Idea, I'll take 2 with out bolts, Jay

pecor/Jay,
I've sent you a PM

I've got about 8 pieces left for this batch.

A little update.... I've mailed clamps out for all of yesterday's orders.
However, I've lost $$ on these as the US post office now claims that "parts" have a different rate to letters, so shipping was $2.07 ea. order.
Since the parts are so light weight, it's the same rate for 1 or 2 clamps to con/us.
I'm absorbing the cost on this as I really wanted to get the parts in the hands of those who need them and I should have double checked with my local office if they'd honor the online rates.

Online USPS has an option for "Letter Containing Rigid Object" which is $0.66 for 3.5oz or less in First-Class Mail. This is a lie, and I must have spent 10min arguing with the postal worker as the rate even showed up on the screen but she refused to give it to me!
Just for the sake of clarification, I finally got ahold of my local post office manager and he totally denies that "Rigid Object" refers to an actual object and claims that rate is only for overstuffed envelopes or cards with paperclips or thick stickers etc; even though both my parts and those "cards" will have to be sorted by hand instead of machine. Thus, these are technically "parcels" to them.

For my previous shipments of small plastic pieces like these, they never made a noise but I guess times have changed.

Sorry, there's no way around this for future orders and I hope the additional cost won't stop this part from succeeding.
-8th

5 Pieces left for Batch #1

3 Pieces left. Possibly more on the way in the near future with more V-Tail Angles:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...2#post24249597

1 Piece left.....