Originally posted by Tallman
Incredible stuff! Can you explain or show how the rear elevons pop up at ejection? I get the D12 paper clip thing on the one glider, but it looks as though strings are involved with others.
On those designs using the single elevator, I can either just eject the motor casing which has a large bent paper clip on it to hold down the elevator for boost and release it for glide. Or, if Im ejecting an internal pod (such as in the Bomarc and F20 flavor of EconoGlider) then the gliders main BT is too large for said paper clip to reach up there. What I do then is just tie said paper clip to a cord and anchor that to the rear of the pod, sort of like a shock cord (nonelastic, of course). Pod ejects, snatching clip off, elevator free.
The Concorde, and other gliders using two outboard elevons, is done a bit differently. I run a thin strip under the 'cut out area' where the elevons are, and the paper clips on a cord clip the elevons to that for boost flatness. Since this requires 2 clips, one is at each end of the cord, with its middle tied around the pod, behind the rear C ring.
I do not care for the old 'elevon hold down bars' that others have used, these get out of adjustment very easily, and if your elevons arent flattened for boost, well, you have problems.
You cant get any easier or simpler than just to clip the control surface to either the top of the main BT if you can, or to a backing if outbound. Since Ive done them this way, boost issues due to elevon/vator misalignments are practically zero.
Yea, not an elegant solution, but Im a janitor NOT an engineer
