🚀 go-pugleaf

I usually use ammonia and water to remove warps.  This works MUCH better than
water.  Simply saturate the balsa with this solutionand clamp the wing in the
position you want it to assume.   The ammonia does something to the cells of
the balsa and causes it to be more flexable.   After it dries the water and 
ammonia are gone and the balsa resumes it's original property.   I read this
originally in one of the mags.  Maybe one of you chemical oriented guys can
expand on why this works.

I also used to steam balsa to bend it around difficult bends.  What I do for 
that is use a long piece of rubber tube, like for automobile vacuum lines, and
plug it into the wife's pressure cooker top.  Where the jiggle thing goes.  You
get great quantities of live steam in this way, so be careful.  

As far as a warped wing goes.  Don't cover it until you have the wing perfect.
Ie, both sides should be exactly the same.  If you cover it and take the warp 
by tensioning the covering, you're asking for nothing but problems and the warp
will come back forcing you to work with it before every flying session.  I have
never seen a poorly built wing fly well.  The whole difference between a great
flying model and one that's all over the sky is in building it true (and light).

I even go so far as to build my wings on a sheet of glass.   There are numerous
other techniques.  A well built airplane will groove and fly where you point it.
It will track through loops, inside and outside.  In general a great flying 
plane will make you look better than you are in the air, at least in my case it 
does.  I am currently flying 4 models.  One of them is not perfect and it is a
real bear to land as I fly it all the way into the ground.   The others are much
better and after I line up with the runway I only need to worry about the 
throttle and the elevator, not in keeping it aligned with the runway.

Just an observation, but usually the guys that are master builders (you know,
their airplanes are beautiful inside and out) have airplanes that fly as good
as they look.  I think this is because they take the care to make sure everything
is right, including the finish.  The cobbled up looking things that you wouldn't
want in your garage, usually fly crummy too.

I think there are other chemicals you can use,  someone else please??


Stan  N5CKQ