How to Protect the Aileron Servos on the Parkzone Ultra Micro UMX Corsair

I was flying my Parkzone Ultra Micro Corsair the other morning. I state that with a bit of pride as it is my first four channel radio control plane that I have kept in the air for any reasonable length of time.

All was going (REMARKABLY) well when I decided to come in for the landing. The approach looked good and all the wheels touched down just like they should!

An then I went to take off again only to notice that my left aileron servo wouldn't work. Urgh!

It was still early in the morning and I suspected that the dew caused a small bit of gravel or dirt to lodge in the mechanism and was blocking the movement of the servo. Double URGH!

The good news is that by the time I got the plane home, the dew had dried off. The servo wouldn't move until I switched the radio out of dual rate mode. I suspect that some combination of my efforts succeeded in knocking the piece of grit out.

Take a look at the picture to the right. This is the servo under the wing and it is completely exposed. I am not a very good pilot, and I expect that I will have some painful landings in the future involving more dirt and grime that will interfere with the proper workings of the ailerons.

Fortunately, there is an easy (and very cheap) way to offer some protection to the mechanism.

My favorite protector is made from an egg carton. The material is light weight and very easy to glue. The individual holders for the eggs are also shaped pretty nicely to cover the servo mechanisms.

With a utility knife, carefully cut two of the egg holders away in roughly the shape that you want to cover the servo. There is no need to be perfectly neat on this step.

Be safe and make sure that the cut out is a little too big. We will trim it down to the correct size shortly.

There are a series of three pictures shown to the right.

The first picture is the fitting of the egg carton after I cut it with the utility knife. That is way too high! See the big gap between the servo and the protector? There is no need for that much space, and will actually deter from normal flight operations. Time to break out the trim scissors!

The second picture shows my son trimming the egg carton down for a better fit. At this stage, I found scissors worked better than the utility knife.

The last picture shows a well trimmed protector. There is still space between the servo and the egg carton which will allow for full and free movement.

Hint: If you accidentally OVER-trimmed, simply squeeze the two sides of the cut out together a little bit. That will raise the material up high enough to clear the mechanism.

Break out the CA glue when you are satisfied that both servo coverings fit well. Make sure that you use foam-safe glue. The regular superglue stands a good chance of melting your foam and potentially damaging your wing.

I spread a thin line around the base of the egg carton covering and carefully installed it over the servo. A quick spritz of accelerant and the aileron protector is securely in place!

Finally, here is a picture of the finished project.

It works like a champ and will offer some protection from the dirt and gravel at my local field. Best of all, it was very inexpensive to do.

If you are looking to modding other aircraft, check out my article on upgrading the Hobbyzone Champ motor. For just a few bucks, you can really improve the performance of this entry-level plane.