UH-18SP Control Surfaces Page 2: Rudders & Elevator

Here is one side of a rudder all sanded and ready to glass.

Here are all 3 rudders and the trim wing sanded on one side and waiting to be glassed. After we fiberglassed that side of them all we repeated the whole process on the other side of them.

Here are the rudders and trim wing in a stand we made so we could easly glass the top and bottom of them.

Here are the rudders and trim wing on and you can see the three swivel brackets on the top of the rudders.

Here is a close up of one of the swivel brackets. They are made from 3/4" high pressure PVC pipe and some Aluminium "L" brackets. To test how strong they where I hit one of them a few time with our mini sledge hammer and it didn't brack, or bend.

Here are the rudders turned all the way one way.

THe first time we took the 18sp for a test run around a grassy lot it did good untill one of the rudders broke, the problem was that we cut the sticks that go through the center of the rudder in half so we could fit them in our lathe to turn the ends round and the glue joint was too weak and it broke.

Next we glued the broken rudder back together and then sanded off the paint and fiberglassed over the crack, then to get the strength of the stick back we took some 3/4"x1/8" aluminium and put it down both sides of the rudders and bolted them together through the stick. This seamed to solve the problem and they havn't broke again yet.

UH-18SP Control Surfaces Page 2: Rudders & Elevator

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