Motion RC Flightline P-38 – Hinge fix

After some communication with the tech support folks at Flightline, I embarked on a plan to repair the poorly glued aileron hinges.  To better explain the issue, here is a short video showing the undesirable motion of the aileron on Kelly’s silver P-38:

The Motion RC folks explained that the hinge in these planes is basically a rod that runs through the aileron with tabs that pivot around that rod extending into and glued (ideally) into the wing.  It’s these tabs that are apparently not secured very well in the two P-38s we received.  They suggested that I carefully drip some glue down into the pockets in the wing.  The following is how I carried that suggestion out:

This was unfortunately not unique.  At least half of the aileron hinges across both aircraft were found to be loose to varying degrees.  This is disappointingly poor quality assembly by Flightline.  Of course, the fix was not terribly onerous but I wonder how many folks have assembled the airplane and only found out this was an issue when the airplane shed an aileron or worse??

In any case, if you build or have built and are flying one of these I highly recommend you check your aileron hinges before you fly.  This could easily cause a loss of control with serious ramifications.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *