Gap seals
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2019 1:44 amHas anyone else put rudder or other gap seals on their Onex or Sonex? If so, what was the result?
Vince Homer
Vince Homer
Any one interested in gap seals I'd be glad to send pictures of my Onex tail by email. It's a simple installation and I think it is effective. Besides, it stops all those questions about the large gap.
Edit 6/12/19 - Added Email contents and pictures:
I don’t have a very sensitive butt, but, I thought the tail was having problems staying behind the airplane. So I went ahead and added rudder and elevator gap seals. I makes sense that the lift should be the same on both sides and with the hinge gap that wasn’t going to happen. The seal material I used was bought at a hardware store. It’s a roll of alum. About 12 in. wide that is normally used in the valley of a roof. It’s .010 thick coated gold on one side and the shiny side has a clear sealer on it that needs to be removed if you are going to polish it.
The seal is about 4 in. wide and has a row of holes on the inside edge to let the seal fit inside the spar and over the rivet tails from the rudder skin. I held it in place with a piece of 1/8 X 1 alum strip that goes behind the rivet tails and clamps the seal material in place. I had to put notches in the edge of the bar stock to let it seat behind the tails. Two or three rivets or screws hold the 1/8 bar in place. It can’t get out from behind the rivet tails so it doesn’t need a lot of fastening.
It helps to put a small crimp in the trailing edge to keep it straight and make it lie against the rudder. Mine does not follow the rudder through it’s full deflection. The tail behaves better now and the elevator seal had a bigger effect than the rudder. I had to add more down trim at cruise from the previous setting.
Edit 6/14/19 - Added elevator gap seal image.