Taping the Wing

Repeat after me …… "Packing tape is your friend"

Boy have we changed this deal up a lot!
Use of packing tape on your wing will provide a tremendous amount strength and durability to your ZagNutz.  My wings have been in every tree around, slid down barbed wire fence (!), smacked rocks and run into cars and the tape keeps them together quite nicely, thank you!  The bottom MUST have at a minimum, the tape job shown in Figure 11.  Those pieces that can stretch full span should be a single piece of tape.  DO NOT STRETCH THE TAPE TOO TIGHT when applying or you will warp your wing. The leading edge is especially vulnerable, so two layers won't hurt here.  Most people just start from the trailing edge and begin an "X" shaped pattern to completely cover their wing and provide the best protection for it!

Ailerons and Radio

I made ailerons out of  4 mil coroplast but you can use balsa or foam wrapped in tape, it's up to you.  I would recommend against making them too big because of flutter off a high start or in steep dives.  The design shown in Figure 12 came after trimming down some standard Zagi style ailerons to reduce the flutter.  They are 3/4" wide near the control horns and 1-1/2" at the widest point.  They are attached using packing tape on both bottom and top.

The servos should be installed as far forward as practical to help with balancing the center of gravity.  Cut a small square, 3 cut, hatch in the foam to install the servos, if there is a piece of foam or something under the hatch, just chop it out. I have used both double sticky tape and (you guessed it!) hot glue to stick 'em in.  The battery pack I used is the 4.8 cell flat pack and it nestles up in the nose quite nicely, with the receiver just behind it.  Cut slits in the foam to provide access to install the battery and receiver but try to keep them as small as possible.  After everything is installed and glued down, just tape over the slits with your friend Mr. Packing Tape.

Slot the foam for pushrod exits as appropriate for the height of your control horns and pushrod type.  Attach them to the top most hole in your control horn.  Test for free movement.

Balancing and Flying

The center of gravity (CG) of the ZagNutz is from 7-1/2" to 8" back from the point of the nose.  Once you get used to flying the ZagNutz you can fiddle with moving the CG back a bit,  but watch out for any tendency to "snap" on the turns.  Once she's balanced up, dial in a bit of "up" in both ailerons equally.  All wings require a certain degree of "reflex" to fly without diving.  This is a TLAR kind of thing but don't get too carried away--I'd say about 5 degrees or so to start.

Begin test glides with a firm, head high toss straight ahead.  The wing should glide straight and true with no tendency to "hobby horse" or bob up and down.  Once you get a good smooth glide, you can be off to the slope or drag out your high start.