WING STRUTS AGAIN

[garvey76]

Hi all
i know a few posts have been put on here from time to time
but can some one post some pictures or a how to mod the wing struts.
i broke my ones and would like to see how something can be fitted apart from the original, especially where they attach to the battery compartment area!
i am looking at thin wire or fish line cheers for any help

[surjer]

I saw an awesome idea where someone used a nylon bolt and threaded that into the fuse where they normally connect. He then cut off the Bolt Head and used a wing nut. He was using the stock wing struts tho... Just thought that was a kewl idea for whatever kind of struts you end up going with,,

[davemac2]

garvey,

Just cut down the original plastic strut where it screws into the fuse and use that to secure the fishing line to the fuse with the screws as normal. IE. Cut them about 1.5-2" long, then drill as small a hole as you can in the cut ends and feed your fishing line thru the hole and back to the wings. This way, you still get a bit of adjustment with the elongated hole in those plastic strut ends in case the line stretches or you need some fine tuning. To set up the fishing line to the correct length, install the wing with the elastic bands and the cut down strut ends, and then install the fishing line and tension to your preference, securing at each end with either knot, ferrules, or small fishing hooks with the spurs deburred.

I'll post a pic this weekend if I get a chance.

dave mc

[garvey76]

CHEERS DAVEMAC2
Thats the sort of thing i was looking at.
at the moment i have put a paper clip in both ends of the eyes at end of wings one rubber band in each end of the paper clips and stretched the band so it is hooked over the screw at the body end!(got pictures but cant post as on work comp and not allowed to register to the host photo sites)
seems to work fine.
flew with NO struts yesterday and no problems.

[hack73]

I wish there were detailed instructions with pictures.

[davemac2]

garvey76 said:

CHEERS DAVEMAC2
Thats the sort of thing i was looking at.
at the moment i have put a paper clip in both ends of the eyes at end of wings one rubber band in each end of the paper clips and stretched the band so it is hooked over the screw at the body end!(got pictures but cant post as on work comp and not allowed to register to the host photo sites)
seems to work fine.
flew with NO struts yesterday and no problems.

The only problem with using rubber bands is that they will give too much under high G forces which is really what you want to protect the wings from.

dave mc

[duck9191]

i was bored wondering through the store today when i came across some fishing gear and found my new set up for struts. i have seen quite a few people who have done similar. no more messing with those screws, just unclip and go.







after looking at those, i really need to repaint the cub, to much low and slow and oops lol.

[chasrankin]

Hello my flying friends. Yeah, those struts! When I got my first Super Cub, I absolutely loved the plane, but I could not tolerate the idiocy of having to screw the wing struts down. After all, transporting the Cub is much easier (and safer for the plane) with the wings removed. I believe I have come up with the perfect solution... velcro. Yes, I love velcro. Take a look at one of my YouTube videos, entitled "Night Flying - HZ Super Cub". You can see the mod in the video. With this simple mod, removal of the wing is now quick and simple (and requires no tools). Also, I put a single strip of velcro on the bottom center of the wing to "catch" the two loose wing struts for transporting... keeps the struts from flopping around as they are stuck to this middle piece of velcro. Anyway, take a look. I have two cubs and am having a blast. However, as we are all seeing in this forum, there are some commonsense and creative solutions to some of its shortcomings. Hope this helps.

[garvey76]

ALL sounds much better than what i got at moment. flys well.
Velcro sound real good, i like Velcro its my friend ;D
cant post pics as not allowed on photo host sites,its a work thing.
so posted what Ive done on you tube
chasrankin, like what youve done but how did fix the velcro on the end of the struts, cant see from vid.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2opQyBLGUI

[davemac2]

Those are great ideas chasrankin. Velcro sounds cool but I wonder how much shear force it can withstand before it seperates? It would be interesting to find out. If it's at least 20 lbs, then that would probably be sufficient.

How much were those ring llights at Walmart? Was it fairly easy to fly at nite like that, or was it stressful? IE. did you have to concentrate pretty hard to keep track of the cub's orientation?

dave mc

[hack73]

Very nice, Duck9191!

[davemac2]

so, as I promised, here are sme pics:

Here is the wire and sleaves I used. I would advise a slightly thicker wire or going to a non-wire fishing line.



Here is the cut down original plastic struts with a small hole drilled into them. You want to keep the hole as small as possible to maintain strength.



Here is the wire installed into the plastic eyelets. Notice how the wire is installed with both strut wires passing thru a common sleave. I leave this sleave uncrimped intially. If the wire or fishing line develops some slack later from stretching, you can move that sleave up towards the wing to provide more tension and drop a bit of CA behind it. (that is there is no more adjustment from the eyelets on the fuse)


Here is one side of the wing with the wire installed and the crimping sleaves attached. The wire is pulled taught but without much tension. The sleaves are pushed up against the ends to prevent the wire from slipping after adjustment. Both sides of the wing are done at the same time. I did not use any hooks at the ends this time because I found that fishing hooks have an open eyelet on them and even if you close those, the hook still manages to come undone from the wire. I decided it's better to have no hooks at all.



When adjusting the wire length, I installed the eyelets on the fuse adjusted midway in their slots to give some +/- adjustment later.


Once the wire is adjusted to be taught, I carefully remove the eyelet screw from the fuse being careful not to disturb the wire and the sleaves. Then I hold the wire vertical and crimp the 2 ends closest to the wing with a crimper. I need to remove the fuse end because otherwise it's too hard to get a crimper onto the sleaves.

The SC with the wire installed:


dave mc

[garvey76]

Looking real good davemac.
thanks for pictures real help for us newbies.
got to get my self down local tackle shop at weekend.
See you have bigger wheels also, but thats for another forum
so much to do so little time, weather good at moment so just want to be up in the sky.
thanks again all.

[chasrankin]

All great ideas. I'd like to answer a couple of questions regarding the velcro solution to the struts on the Super Cub. I truly believe that this is the best and simplest solution and offers the most benefits. If you try it, you will love it. On the fuse end of the strut, take a 3.5 inch length of self adhesive velcro stripping (the "loop" type) and fold the screw part of the strut inside. Then stick on a piece of the "hook" type of the velcro across the bottom of the fuse where the battery door latch is located and screw down some flat screws through the velcro into the original strut screw holes. Jeez... this would be so easy with some pictures. Someone tell me how to add a couple of pictures please!

Davemac, good question on the shear strength. This is very important. I have tested this. The shear strength for the velcro in my present configuration exceeds 70 lbs (that's as hgh as my equipment goes and it was holding fast). So this is not an issue. Another benefit to this design that some of you may not have thought of is that there are situations where you do want the strut to break (or at least give a bit)...just like the wings popping off on a bad crash... it takes some of the impact off other more important parts of your plane. Believe me, I have plenty of empirical data on this fact as I've bounce my plane off the ground and into trees many many times. So if/when you break a strut, you simply remove the velcro from the broken strut and reapply it to a new strut. Again, somebody please enlighten me on getting pictures on this forum and I can then make it very simple to understand. -Charlie

[davemac2]

70lbs shear sounds good to me! Next time they break, thats the way I'm going.

To post pics, you need to first upload your pics to some sort of photo hosting site,whether that be some web server service you have, or a site such as photobucket.com. When you upload your pics to them, they will provide you with the code to imbed your pics in your post here.

dave mc