Aloha aviators,
What’s the go on Takuma tips? I heard Erik cut the tips off the 1095. Should the 1210 be trimmed as well?
Looking for performance feedback; understand the safety part.
Best Regards,
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I cut the tips off my 1440 and there has been no noticible difference
Do the tips need to be sealed after removal?
Ive rounded the wingtips on my 1095 and 1440. Intent was solely for safety of me and my equipment, and I accomplished that goal with no appreciable impact on performance. The winglets are still present, and the modification was minor (I’m guessing a little more than 0.25" of material removed). I marked my desired profile and used a hand saw to round them out. One of the wings (cant remember which one) exposed a very small sliver of core material, so I sealed and built it up with some thickened epoxy. The core material runs surprisingly far into the winglet given the thin profile. Lots of fine sanding to perfect the profile, and a quick clearcoat spray to blend the finish and it looks 100% perfect as if it were manufactured this way, just slightly rounder/safer.
I also heavily modified a 220 stabilizer (I think I took ~0.75" of each side). Definitely hit the core on that one. The core is a different material than the wings - I think its high density foam but it almost looked like wood? Same method as above, just more radical necessitating the use of a grinder. The stabilizer profile was a lot thicker, so I had to spend a lot of time building up the profile and tapering off the edges. The key was to overbuild with thickened epoxy so you have material that you can use to reshape the profile and run a proper taper.
About a year and a lot of use later, and all of this is holding up 100% perfectly.
My attention to detail was probably overkill. I know others who have used thickened superglue to seal the winglets and it doesn’t look as nice, but it works fine.
Now Im getting curious about a more heavy modification to the 1095, but too scared to pull the trigger since I REALLY like that wing.
Cut them off!!! I get a few pics a month of pretty gnarly cuts from the kujira knife tips. And I think the ride better without.