My area of the country is plagued by mud wasps ("dirt daubers").  They love to build their mud nests in deep, dark recesses such as the multiple nooks and crannies found in airplanes!  I've had some success hanging "Rescue Trapstiks for Wasps" around the hangar, but invariably at annual I find at least one mud nest somewhere in the plane.  One favorite spot for them is in the top of the flaperon pushrod channel above the "banana slot," which provides wide-open access!  Lately, I've taken to stuffing a piece of foam rubber into the area to keep them out when the plane is in the hangar.  I decided recently to make a more-elegant-looking solution:

I found a suitably thick sponge that I could divide to make two sponges  (the sponge needs to be thick enough to grip the flaperon but not so thick it is distorted and won't lay flat against the fuselage) in the "aviation department" at Lowe's. (Actually, it was a sponge that is used for cleaning grout off tile.)  I split it right down the middle with my band saw and sprayed 3M upholstery adhesive on the sponge and the back of a piece of fake suede material and glued them together.  The suede lets the sponge slide easily over the fuselage and prevents scratching.  I made a cardboard template with a cutout where the pushrod bushing passes through the banana slot and checked that the sponge template would cover the slot with the flaps up or down.

Once I was sure the template was correct, I made a hole punch from a short piece of 1/2" steel conduit and used my vice to drive the punch through the template hole, suede, and sponge, using a piece of wood as a backstop for the punch:

(Yes, "Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds" is my favorite cereal!  ;>)

I then cut a slot into the hole so I can slip the sponge over the bushing:

I left the backside of the sponge uncovered, figuring the texture of the sponge would help grip the flaperon and keep it in place:

Obviously, this could be used with any of the Zenith models that have a "banana slot."  If I knew then what I know now, I would have built my STOL 750 "slotless" as a few have done.  I understand Zenith can delete the slot if you tell them when ordering your fuselage kit.

The sponges do provide some resistance to flaperon motion, but not so great that if they were forgotten and left in place for a flight, I don't think it would lock the controls,  However, I do plan to tag them with "Remove Before Flight" flags for additional pre-flight visibility.

John

N750A