What’s the best way to rig a control rod?

Generally, I put a Z-bend in one end and thread the other end through a Du-Bro EZ Connector, which I use to adjust the deflection of the control surface.

Invariably, I put the EZ Connector on the servo arm and attach the Z-bend to the control horn.

Until yesterday, that is.

During combat sessions, we fly the Wild Wings close in. During the tumult of battle, we sometimes lose control of our aircraft.

Bouncy Crashes. Fortunately they weigh less than 7 ounces, so they don’t crash hard. Even if one zooms into its pilot’s leg or arm, it generally bounces off without harm.

However, we worry about the ends of the control rods, which typically stick straight out the front of the wing.

We’ve blunted them by pulling the round heads off of push pins, drilling the holes out and epoxying them onto the ends of the rods. Cheap, safe and colorful.

But Gary Morgan has a better solution: a clear plastic shield which covers the servo, its arm and the end of the control rod.

I’m building a new Wild Wing (Let’s see, is this my fifth? Am I insane? No! I’ve gotta have backups!) and I intend to install Gary’s nifty servo covers.

But once they’re in place, I won’t be able to adjust the Du-Bro EZ Connectors…

…unless I drill an access hole for a screwdriver, which is fiddly…

…or I move the Du-Bro EZ Connectors to the other end of the control rods.

Flipping the Rods. That seemed like a bright idea, so on Sunday I installed two flipped control rods on the new wing.

In the process, I discovered the downside: it’s hard to fit the EZ Connectors onto the control horns. Really hard.

(Aside: I’d suggest that EZ Connectors should be called Fiendish Bastard I Hate You Connectors because it’s so tough to press on their little plastic keepers. They squirt through your fingers like wet watermelon seeds, they grow legs and scuttle into inaccessible crevices and hidey holes when you drop them and they seem to require hundreds of pounds of perfectly-centered pressure to snap into place.)

Your monstrously fat fingers have about half an inch of space to wiggle around in, trying to apply enough pressure to punch the EZ Connectors into the holes in the control horns, then trying to press the keepers onto the ends of the connectors.

Painful Snap. I labored through the first one, then tackled #2. It was hot and so sunny that I was struggling to see in the glare. About two minutes into the attempt, I snapped off the top of the control horn.

Went in the house to cool off and consider my options.

Came out and superglued a 1/64-inch plywood reinforcement over the broken control horn, then finished the assembly.

A Bad Idea? I don’t know if I’ll do this again. Maybe next time I can pre-install the EZ Connectors and do my best to shoo the epoxy away from them when I glue the control horns to the elevons.

At the field today, every Wild Wing I looked at had its EZ Connectors installed on the servo arms.

Maybe I should stop thinking about this.

Tags: Combat, Wings.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 7:42 pm and is filed under Elsewhere. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.