Elevator Warpage ?

*nods* I second what ken said. (Bandit)

Ken Cook wrote:              Is the wood bare or painted? Take a heat gun and bend it back while heating and hold it the opposing direction until it cools. You could also place some Testor's cement on the opposite side. When it dries, it shrinks. It will pull the warp out. This is a very non controlled method however. You could also bend it the opposing direction over a tea kettle with the steam blowing directly on it. Ken

The wood is bare. Cupped pretty severely. Hey, now photos are working!

Might be easiest just to replace the cupped part?

I have a Dumas Baby Tomahawk that I fly and it's elevator is cupped even worse than that. I see little to no performance loss in it and I still fly it. I had it out today. I've had the plane for nearly 35 years.

If you're concerned about the cupping not levelling out.. or the way it looks.. you could opt to cut-off the hinges flush with the stabilizer's trailing edge.. and trace-out a new elevator replacement. Chances are; you've already got the scrap-balsa needed. It would also be a good opportunity to try using a sewn-hinge technique. Are there cloth/strap-hinges on it now? You might be able to remove them with tweezers and either re-do them.. or level-out the spots where they were, with filler.. then sand-smooth for an alternate hinging method. A sewn hinge is probably an easier "re-hinging" job seeing that the stabilizer is already glued into the tail.

Here's an example of a sewn hinge.. and there are threads (pardon the pun..) on how to sew them, here on the forum.

Man that is a Cool little speed racer Roddie!

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I like the idea of the threaded hinge. This is my son's Lil' Wizard trainer so not to get too involved with the correction I think I'll mask the stab so it doesn't soak up steam and try steaming the elevator a bit. It's cupped towards the side with the 4 hinge attachments on it, the other side has 2, so it was definitely the glue shrinkage. The stab is even cupped a bit the other way on the 4 hinges side. If it doesn't straighten out I'm sure he'll be okay with it for learning circles.

Thanks again! Greg

that's a cool little bird there roddie!