Friday - January 23, 2004

I've been asked many times how I built the linkage for the spoiler on my AVA, here it is...

The AVA is really a simple build, the only thing I put any thought into was the spoiler linkage.  The spoiler on this model is huge, and my first concern was spoiler deflection on launch, I did not want that barn door spoiler pulling away from the wing so I needed some kind of positive control in both directions, (many guys in the old days of RES would just rig linkage for deflection, and use magnets or rubberbands to hold the spoiler down when not deployed).  My next concern was how tight the working area was to pull this off.  I happened to be playing around with an R/C Helicopter when the solution came to me, dual ball links on an opposed 90 degree angle.

I went to the hobby shop and bought a couple Dubro ball links, cut down the threaded socket ends, cut a small piece of threaded control rod, and screwed the two ball link arms together making sure the ball link ends ended up at about 90 degrees off angle to each other.  The pictures below should make this process much clearer.

View from the bottom of the center panel, Hitec HS-80 servo fits perfectly.

View from the top of the center panel, spoiler fully deflected.

More than enough!  I have this much potential travel, no slop all the way down to a positive closed position.

Click the above pictures to enlarge them if you need a closer look.