This will be final installment in my series on the OG Turbo Timber BNF. After this I will start a new installment on the TT SWS ARF or Mark 2.
This is because after almost a month of back and forth with Tower Hobbies/Horizon we came to an agreement and they offered me an ARF as a replacement for what I suppose is likely the cost of shipping or therabouts. I consider this very fair and am very happy with this outcome. I actually suggested this remedy early on… whether they followed that or came to a similar conclusion on their own… I don’t know.
By the letter of their warranty they could easily have just said… “Sorry for you loss, but we are not liable for any crash damage.” and just moved on. They, of course, are not making any admission of responsibility. In this litigeous world I didn’t expect they would. I have hopes that they will someday upgrade the clevises on this airplane but in the meantime I will spread the word as best I can and encourage others to spend a few dollars and upgrade the clevises. Here is my recommendation…
The control linkage on this aircraft is (IMHO) incompatible with long life for this airframe. My GPS shows the airplane is easily capable of 90+ MPH and weights ~8 pounds. With the size of the control surfaces, the weak point is apparently the nylon clevises. See previous posts for the possible result.
The servos seem sufficient, the control rods are pretty short and the L bend type snap on connectors all seem fine. If you take my advice and replace the clevises I expect this would be a nice robust setup. To replace these, you have a myriad of options.
In my case, I tried threading a 2-56 name brand clevis onto the existing rods and found that the threads cut/rolled on these are “not quite” a match. The clevis seems to be “wobbly” and I can’t find a metric size that fits any better/at all… so I’m just assuming the threads are poorly done. When you are essentially cutting threads into a nylon/plastic clevis it doesn’t much matter…. the existing rods works fine. But, if you want to go to a nice metal clevis… I’d replace the entire rod as well with a good name brand piece of hardware and use a jam nut.
My own solution is to use a Dubro 2-56 swivel ball link. They are made of a tough plastic of some sort on the end that the control rod threads into and has a small bolt (2-56 as well) that bolts through the control horn. If you use thread lock or some other method of insuring the nut on this bolt does not come lose (I’m considering a nylon insert nut) I’d expect these things to be attached “for life”.
I’ll be starting my build on the ARF very soon so it won’t be long before I put this in use. I’ll be doing my best to insure this is NOT the reason for the demise of TT SWS mark II.