Flying Farmer

Hello; I am new to this sport and have a Taylorcraft 450,no this isn't my trainer,I just noticed it has a rather bad twist in the right wing about 2/3 rds of the was out from the center. I didn't notice this until I had the wing together. The center of the wing match perfectly when I glued it together but after the first flight you could tell it wasn't right. A experienced club pilot did the maiden flight and tried to trim it out but it is a hand full to fly(not his exact words. I took it home and made a jig to check the wing and found this condition. Can I straighten this wing? If so what is the best way to go about it. Thank You in advance for any and all help. I can buy a new wing but would like to omitt this extra expense.

birdDog

Try using a heat gun or hair dryer. Have a friend hold one end of the wing while you untwist the twisted end while applying heat. Start out cool and work your way to hotter as you need to. Hold the wing straight or a little over bent until it cools. Heat both sides of the wing evenly at the twist. You should be able to true it up pretty good. Those are some nice looking planes!

Flying Farmer

I may try this except the wing is covered and I don't know if I can get enough heat on it to do any good before effecting the covering. I may have to remove the covering.

birdDog

In most cases it is the covering that is warping it. You need to shrink the film in such a way that it pulls the bend out. Also, heating the coveing while stretching it will cool to leave it in a stretched state. You need the inside of the bend to stretch and the outside of the bend to shrink.

Bub Steve

Good Post'in there BirdBub!!yourbub, steve

Bill G

Stand back with a heat gun, and flex the wing as desired and reshrink. I've done this with over half of my planes, even with Microlite covering which is very thin. Just don't get too close. Hair dryers up to 1200W have proven to not have enough heat to do the job.