Elevons By James Goss      Elevon is a term that most modelers have heard of if they have been in the hobby for a while. For the new R/C pilots I will describe how elevons operate and when you need to use them. The term elevon is created by combining elev from elevator and on from aileron. I first started to use elevons about three years back when I built a Spinsation fun fly plane. This plane is almost a flying wing, but has a rudder rear of the wing and does not have separate ailerons and elevator. With elevons the elevator and aileron channels are mixed together to act as one unit. When you move the elevator stick, both ailerons will move as the elevator would in a standard setup. When you move the elevator stick, both ailerons will move as the elevator would in a standard setup.      For the last year I have been using elevons religiously on my new Postage Stamp Planes. It is a four-channel plane just like any other plane except it doesn't have separate elevators and ailerons. It is neat how the mixing works; you can operate elevators or ailerons and also operate them at the same time.  In other words while you are holding the elevator stick in an off center position, you can also move the aileron stick off center to get aileron response. You will have to be careful and not program in too much elevator or aileron travel because the servos may reach their limit before full stick motion has occurred. It is best to keep the travel settings low when you program the elevons and adjust the control linkages to get your desired travel.      They are three ways to mix the elevator and ailerons, first and the easiest is to do it in your radio transmitter. Not all radios have this function but all computer radios will have it. You simply follow the manufactures directions and it only takes about five minutes to set them up. The second way is to use a mechanical mixer that gangs your elevator and aileron servos together. I have never used the mechanical mixers, but I have seen some disasters occur while using them due to failure of the mechanism. The third way is to install an inline electronic mixer. This little device plugs in-between the receiver and the servos and will mix any two channels. They cost around $45, which makes the computer radios look even better.     So when you get ready to fly the Postage Stamp or any other plane that requires elevons, don't worry about it because they are very simple to setup, especially if you have a computer radio.