Folding tail parts and struts

[Flyguyeddy]

So this will be a little bit of a long post so bear with me. 

In past writings before he nuked damn near everything about it, Sam buchanan had wrote about his experiments and recommendations of how to improve parts of the legal eagle xl.  Some of them are, of course, hotly debated.  One of the more impressive ones he did was use a 1/2” .035 4130 vert stab leading edge, and 1/2” .035 aluminum struts on the BOTTOM of the horizontal stab, with standard 3/32 cables on the top.  Now i have not ever seen pictures of this modification, due to the aforementioned deletion of that data.  Thankfully, the text of his website still lives on in the Wayback Machine archives so i have gleaned much from his experiments, along with the yahoo group archives. 

What i dont know is how he attached those aluminum strut pieces to the tail or the fuse.  Here is my idea for the tail attachment.  Seems logical to me, please let me know if this wont work. 

Bear in mind, i intend to fold the horizontal stab up against the vert stab when not flying, as im attempting to integrate a folding wing onto the LEXL.  hangar space is non existent anywhere near me and i dont live out on a farm.  Trailer hangaring is my only option.

[Dan_]

You will want a castellated nut and cotter pin with a drilled shank eye bolt.  Order the eye bolts with the grip long enough to fill the bushing except for one or two threads. 

As per L.E. Milholland perscription, add several washers under the castellated nut so that when the cable stretches you can take some washers off instead of having to make a new cable.

Cotter pins are cheap.  Plastic lock nuts are never to be reused. 

With the cotter pin in place, there is no question during pre-flight that the nut has been tightened.

[Flyguyeddy]

Im actually going to be doing this with my vertical stab cables

[kalazzerx]

I do not see in general why that will not work - I like it.  The only thing I can think of is a little extra drag but should be minimal.  Oh, of course, a little more weight too!

My question is what folding wing design are you going to use?  Have you got a design for that?  I was looking at the Air Bike folding wing design and think it will work if the tail is not in the way - hence your design I believe

[Flyguyeddy]

That is correct, airbike is my intent.  We will see how well it works

[kalazzerx]

Been thinking about this and did find the info about Sam's mod's that he made but did not find any info about an actual hing configuration.  I did not see any mention about hinging the horizontal stab - just beefing up the vertical and adding the struts to lower.  My concern is I am not sure how to setup the hing and still have a working elevator horn.  That part would definitely need some additional redesign to make this all work.  Any thoughts?

[Kiwi55]

The hor. stab on the Cabin Eagle was reduced to 8ft. I'm not sure what it is on a LE or XL. I presume the reduction (from what is on the DE) was to fit a trailer as the CE also has folding wings.
Perhaps you could build your hor. stab such that it does not need folded for trailering...

[Flyguyeddy]

Kalazz

If you go looking on the yahoo group archives you will find bodacious and how john steere did his horiz tail parts.  Thats how im doing mine. 

[Theodore]

Been thinking about this and did find the info about Sam's mod's that he made but did not find any info about an actual hing configuration.  I did not see any mention about hinging the horizontal stab - just beefing up the vertical and adding the struts to lower.  My concern is I am not sure how to setup the hing and still have a working elevator horn.  That part would definitely need some additional redesign to make this all work.  Any thoughts?

Tried and true 1939 Piper Cub design for easy empennage removal, LE somewhat similar. Folding maybe faster, however just clip the span of the hor/stab to fit trailer(inside). I think Joe Spencer did that. I like the Russian video, i wonder what their "103" rules are?
BTW "bodacious" is not a legal eagle and likly cost three times to build, not 103 compliant, close but overweight at 261. i would assume John Steere is license pilot(LSA).
I sure like the doors idea, according to John's youtube vid doors are considerd payload. i'm all over that one!
also note
Thx
Theo

[Chuck in Indiana]

Plastic lock nuts are never to be reused.

Not necessarily true. They *can* be reused. How many times is up to the mechanic.
FAA 4313, the mechanics bible, gives in Section 4, nuts 7-64 table 7-2
"Minimum prevailing torque of reused self locking nuts."
Anyone that is building an airplane should really be familiar with 4313. It's free to download.
https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/advisory_circulars/index.cfm/go/document.information/documentid/99861

[kalazzerx]

For now, I just built by the plans.  I may change the tail group later if it becomes a real problem but my plan is to just buy a wider trailer - 8.5x18 should do it.

Almost getting her done, covering wings now.  So wing covering, Paint, some electronics, instrumentation, and will be able to start my first test runs, hops.

[Theodore]

What covering? Oratex? expensive, a friend i know just paid 6K to have his J3 covered by others.

[kalazzerx]

Heck no,   just going with dacron uncertified and latex paint.  looking at about 300 or so.  I have played with both POLY-TAK and echobond glue wise, I am probably going to just use poly-tak for the wings although I did buy superflite 7 glue so may give that a go too.  in order to glue fabric to the upper ribs, I will use poly-tak process as Leonard describes which makes rib stitching unnecessary.
I will use the poly-tak on the upper ribs as

[Theodore]

Heck no,  just going with dacron uncertified and latex paint.  looking at about 300 or so.  I have played with both POLY-TAK and echobond glue wise, I am probably going to just use poly-tak for the wings although I did buy superflite 7 glue so may give that a go too.  in order to glue fabric to the upper ribs, I will use poly-tak process as Leonard describes which makes rib stitching unnecessary.
I will use the poly-tak on the upper ribs as

polytak can cause brain damage, very stinky stuff.
 I will experiment with anything/manythings on covering. NO POLYTAK, maybe two part epoxy finish(similar to automotive paint, final finsih/paint)), i havnt search/studied much on this yet, at least a year away for me...
Peace
Theo

[Chuck in Indiana]

polytak can cause brain damage,

Hmmm.. that explains a lot.