Can the chrysalis be modified with ailerons?

Can the chrysalis be modified with ailerons or will the wing twist with them? I am looking to build a light weight slope plane and the Chrysalis is the lightest I have seen.

From : Don Stackhouse

Kevin, this has been done successfully before. Torsional stiffness of the wing is definitely an issue, but it can be dealt with. I'd recommend shear-webbing the entire length of the main spar on both faces with hard c-grain (the kind with the pronounced "speckled" or "checked" appearance) balsa, or 1/64" birch ply would be even better.

Build the wing with no dihedral breaks outboard, but leave the dihedral the same as it was at the center.

Sheet the panel breaks between rib J and K1 and ribs K2 and L with 1/32" balsa, just like the center section. You will need to sand those ribs down on their top and bottom edges by EXACTLY 1/32" to make room for the sheeting.

Put your hinge line about 2 1/4" ahead of the trailing edge. Make a short sub rib from 1/8" balsa just outboard of rib B to act as the inboard end of the flap. Don't forget to make it 1/16" thicker than rib B (because it won't have any balsa sheeting on it).

Add a double spar of 1/4" x 1/16" spruce or basswood top and bottom on either side of the hinge line, then cut between them to separate the control surfaces from the wing. Sand a bevel in the leading edges of the control surfaces to allow for travel both up and down. Cap the wing trailing edges and both sides of the the control surface leading edge spars with 1/32" c-grain hard balsa or 1/64" ply. This will add a tiny bit more weight, but the Chrysalis has enough wing area to tolerate it, and you'll need the higher speed capability and flutter resistance for slope work.

You can use just flaperons on the inboard wing panels only, or flaperons full-span, or if you want to get REAL fancy, set it up with four small servos in the wing for separate flaps and ailerons. Of course by this point you've completely departed from the Chrysalis' original concept as a cheap, simple sailplane, but as long as you're still having fun that's not a problem! Then again, by the time you've gone this far you might want to consider getting a Wizard instead.

On the other hand, if you really want a LIGHT slope model, just forget the ailerons and build it as a 2-channel r-e model, lots of them fly slopes that way.

Don Stackhouse @ DJ Aerotech