I'd like to think that I am not the only builder to have found a way to
permanently bond the tailplanes to the torque tubes.
After struggling to forcibly remove the tailplanes (which required both a
large pry bar and sufficient heat) after my first attempt at following the
factory's procedure, I decided that there is a much safer way to do the job.
Substitute a mandrel for the torque tube and do the work on the work bench
instead on the airplane. The attached drawings show how I did this.
The epoxy still bonded the tailplane to the mandrel, even with plenty of
wheel bearing grease on the mandrel and frequent rotation of the mandrel
while the epoxy cured, but now I had a means to apply force against the rib
via a screw into the outer mandrel section and a closed end tube against the
rib (not shown in the drawings).
In addition to using the mandrel instead of the torque tube I fabricated an
aluminum retainer rather than rely on the fiberglass-epoxy layup alone to
retain TP06, but this is probably unnecessary.
For anyone who wants to use this method I will provide my (no longer needed)
mandrel assembly at no cost - just pay the shipping charges.
Best regards,
Rob Housman
Irvine, CA
Europa XS Tri-Gear
A070
Airframe complete
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