SonexBuilders.net

GraemeSmith wrote:You can't take a skin from (say a 1965 built) 150 and fit it to another. If nothing else - none of the rivet holes will REMOTELY line up. And the skins will often not fit for curvature. Hence when repairing - you have to start with a new skin and make it fit. Or have a whole component assembly from the junk yard with a chance the attachment points will line up.

Bryan Cotton wrote:I rebuilt a 1946 Cessna C140 and was amazed at how well parts from one would fit another. I think they had good tooling.

Bryan Cotton wrote:Igor Sikorsky said "If you build an airplane straight, it will fly straight. If you build it crooked, it will fly crooked."

Skippydiesel wrote:Latest -

Reduced my rudder trim to 100 x 30mm and lowered my left flap 1/2 turn. Good result! aircraft now straight & level in cruise flight. May attempt to minimise size of rudder trim tab or just leave as is.

Next big push(after test flight schedule completed) is to come up with a better radiator/oil cooler locations, which will mean a change in cowling shape.

John Monnett wrote:Over the years and a bunch of aircraft I have used a simple method to determine the size of trim tabs. A length of a common soda straw is taped to the trailing edge of the surface on the side you want to deflect. Make an educated guess as to the length,(say 8 to 6") and test fly. trim the length to adjust. Once you've got it right, then make an aluminum tab to match.

Onex107 wrote:

Skippydiesel wrote:Latest -

Reduced my rudder trim to 100 x 30mm and lowered my left flap 1/2 turn. Good result! aircraft now straight & level in cruise flight. May attempt to minimise size of rudder trim tab or just leave as is.

Next big push(after test flight schedule completed) is to come up with a better radiator/oil cooler locations, which will mean a change in cowling shape.

I found that by adding gap seals to the rudder and elevator it straightened my Onex out without trim tabs.
Onex107