Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Taylorcraft aileron cove

Pre-war Taylorcraft aileron cove looks kinda like swiss cheese. In order to get the fabric covering of the aircraft to stay on the metal, lots of holes were drilled in the aileron cove, and a peice of fabric was laid on the inside (back of the peice) and doped. When the fabric was wrapped over the aileron well while covering the wing, the dope on the surface fabric would bond to the fabric strip on the inside, and despite the extreme concave surface, the fabric would not snap away from the metal.

I wanted to avoid making all these holes, and to use the post-war solution of screwing a small thin strip of metal down the length of the cove in the middle of the curve, then laying a fabric patch over it. However, when I got the aileron cove fitted and attached, I discovered a small problem: insufficient clearance. There is very little space between the aileron cove and aileron - in fact, it will be about an eighth of an inch when the fabric, dope, and color coat have been put on. This is definitely on plane that doesn't need gap seals.

It does, however, need the fabric on the back of the cove. I am not going to try to move the aileron himges and control surfaces out; I'm just going to put the battery back on the charger after depleting it making holes with the step drill. At least it's starting to look like an airplane! (The yellow on top of the wing is the aileron - I got tired of carting it across the shop and back every time I wanted to check clearance.)


  1. wow.. that does look like an interesting solution. What's the fabric for here? Making sure no moisture gets in the wing?

    Are you going to do a "belt and suspenders" and sew them together here and there through the holes? Or is that not worth it?

  2. What do you mean by "here" in 'what's the fabric for here?" If you mean the fabric on the outside, covering an airplane isn't something you can do in streaks and spots like paint on a metal airplane; the process of covering the wing... covers the wing.

    I am confused by 'belt and suspenders', so I repeat exactly what I'm going to do; I will lay a piece of fabric on the back of the aileron cove (the inside of the wing, and dope it. The purpose of this fabric, and the holes in the cove through which it is exposed to the outer layer of fabric, is that when the outer layer of fabric is laid on the front of the aileron cover and doped, it will stick to the fabric on the inside and not snap off the concave curved surface when tightened. Nothing else is needed or required.

  3. if this is mrs D, who really likes Monster hunters inc and serenity RPG's. I found this through TJIC and Jenny's blog. We gamed together a M's house for awhile. Drop me a line

  4. They didn't necessarily do things the 'easy' way, but it DID work... Good luck on getting that part done!

  5. Chris,

    Next time Oleg and I are having a discussion about anonymity vs. ownership on the internet, I'm going to pull this up as the perfect example of how I'm only anonymous by pseudonym if you either don't know me or don't care to put in the minor research ! :-P

    Are you in M's superhero game?

  6. just stopping by to say hello