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Pool noodles for aileron control lock

Ed_Wischmeyer

Well Known Member
So I cut some sections of heavy duty pool noodles, cut a slot in each, and slid them over the wingtip and part of the aileron, one on each side.

Work perfectly in the hangar with no wind…
 
So I cut some sections of heavy duty pool noodles, cut a slot in each, and slid them over the wingtip and part of the aileron, one on each side.

Work perfectly in the hangar with no wind…
Hi Ed,

Some photos would be very helpful!

Outside of something like this (https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pspages/airgizmouniversalgustlock.php which I think requires a ladder to install on the rudder) and a gust lock on the stick (like the Antisplat Ultimate Gust Lock which I do have), do people know of other external gust lock solutions for the rudder and elevator? I'm thinking that might be helpful in particularly windy conditions.

Thanks.
 
And to protect a 3 bladed prop when removing the lower cowl.

20220916_123831.jpg
 
Hi Ed,

Some photos would be very helpful!

Outside of something like this (https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pspages/airgizmouniversalgustlock.php which I think requires a ladder to install on the rudder) and a gust lock on the stick (like the Antisplat Ultimate Gust Lock which I do have), do people know of other external gust lock solutions for the rudder and elevator? I'm thinking that might be helpful in particularly windy conditions.

Thanks.

I used a borrowed pair of those ACS control locks once, and was surprised to find that I could move the control surface by hand - without too much force, and the locked strap just slid through it’s locking mechanism. Basically, it was completely useless if the wind was blowing more than about 5 mph. It looked nice, but for me, it served no purpose.
 
This shows how to use Imgur - Imgur is a very handy place to host photos for VAF.

And yes, I put the screenshot on Imgur.

HI5MO8Q.png


Dave
 
Worth mentioning is that pool noodles won't hold the controls in a 70 kt gust, which is when you really, really need a good gust lock.

Dave
 
https://imgur.com/a/hBp8587

Well, so much for using imgur.com for image hosting... VAF doesn't expand this as an image, even with the IMG tags. Hmm. Better than nothing, I guess.

Imgur works fine. You just have to drill down to get the photo's address ending with .jpeg or .jpg (the actual address of the image).

And this: Scaling "imgur" pics: Add one of the scaling characters listed below before the ".jpg" in the image address.

Here are all the dimensions and letters to choose from:
s = Small Square (90×90)
b = Big Square (160×160)
t = Small Thumbnail (160×160)
m = Medium Thumbnail (320×320)
l = Large Thumbnail (640×640)
h = Huge Thumbnail (1024×1024)

Here is your Imgur pic. I found the .jpeg version of your pic's address and scaled it to "l".

o5jEbRhl.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Imgur works fine. You just have to drill down to get the photo's address ending with .jpeg or .jpg (the actual address of the image).

And this: Scaling "imgur" pics: Add one of the scaling characters listed below before the ".jpg" in the image address.

Here are all the dimensions and letters to choose from:
s = Small Square (90×90)
b = Big Square (160×160)
t = Small Thumbnail (160×160)
m = Medium Thumbnail (320×320)
l = Large Thumbnail (640×640)
h = Huge Thumbnail (1024×1024)

Here is your Imgur pic. I found the .jpeg version of your pic's address and scaled it to "l".

o5jEbRhl.jpeg
The paperclip at the top center of the VAF message options (next to the “white smiley face”) works even better!
 
Depends on your goal. For my build blog, here on VAF, I wanted larger images than the thumbnails with the paperclip, so I use Imgur.

Dave
 
Depends on your goal. For my build blog, here on VAF, I wanted larger images than the thumbnails with the paperclip, so I use Imgur.

Dave
Well, when one clicks on those thumbnail pictures one can open them into a larger picture that one can view and blow up even larger at one’s discretion.

That's a matter of opinion. I was just trying to show Ed that Imgur does indeed work!
Sorry if you felt I was discounting your comment. Did not mean it that way.
 
Depends on your goal. For my build blog, here on VAF, I wanted larger images than the thumbnails with the paperclip, so I use Imgur.

Dave

Just be aware that at any moment Imgur could be bought, closed down, have a policy change, or just change the URL and all those images you posted to VAF will no longer be visible. We've seen this with other image hosting sites, which is why the paperclip method is probably the best for longer term image availability for this site. I hope at some point we can actually use the paperclip and have bigger images...
 
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