Post by soneraifred on Aug 9, 2011 19:53:38 GMT -5
Hi All:
Roger Godfrey sent me the following email about an issue he had with the rear rudder pedals on his IIL. I think it is self-explanatory:
Hi Fred
I went to a fly in yesterday and had an adventure that perhaps has implications for the rest of the low wing Sonerai fleet. I talked my wife into going with me and we had a good time until it was time to go home. My Sonerai which has the rudder steering bar on the right side of the tail wheel has always turned tighter to the right than it will to the left. When we started turning to the left to get on to the runway it would hardly turn at all. I had to unstrap get out and lift the tail around which is embarrassing in front of a whole fly in crowd. I put it down to wet grass and we blasted out. I hit a gopher hole just at lift off and broke a chunk out of my wheel pants, but that is another story. When we got to my home airport the thing would not make a taxi way left turn I have made hundred's of times. Like the guy said in "Ghost Busters " "Something strange going on here". I checked the tail wheel and it was fine. Then I thought perha ps one of the rudder cable sedges was pulling loose so I used a mirror and a flash light to look under the front seat. As you know the rudder pedals mount on torque tubes which run under the front seat. These torque tubes have flat stock tabs which run up parallel to the rudder pedal. The rudder cables connect to these vertical tabs. On the mid wing the cables run directly aft from the tabs and induce no side loads. On the low wing John gathered the rudder cables almost together on the fuselage center line where he ran them though a guide and then through a relatively small hole in the spar carry though box. These converging cables add side loads to the vertical tabs on the rudder pedal torque tube, and on my plane both were bending toward the center of the fuselage. The right one was just starting to bend, but the left one was at about a forty five degree angle. They are under the seat so you don't see them. As the y bend they reduce the leverage on the rudder cable and you get less travel for a given amount of rudder input, not a good thing. It is an easy fix as you can take the pedals out and weld in a forty five degree brace to the torque tube, but I thought you might want to tell the Sonerai net guys to look under their front seat. I would but I cant get on lately, think I messed up my pass word.
Rog
Roger Godfrey sent me the following email about an issue he had with the rear rudder pedals on his IIL. I think it is self-explanatory:
Hi Fred
I went to a fly in yesterday and had an adventure that perhaps has implications for the rest of the low wing Sonerai fleet. I talked my wife into going with me and we had a good time until it was time to go home. My Sonerai which has the rudder steering bar on the right side of the tail wheel has always turned tighter to the right than it will to the left. When we started turning to the left to get on to the runway it would hardly turn at all. I had to unstrap get out and lift the tail around which is embarrassing in front of a whole fly in crowd. I put it down to wet grass and we blasted out. I hit a gopher hole just at lift off and broke a chunk out of my wheel pants, but that is another story. When we got to my home airport the thing would not make a taxi way left turn I have made hundred's of times. Like the guy said in "Ghost Busters " "Something strange going on here". I checked the tail wheel and it was fine. Then I thought perha ps one of the rudder cable sedges was pulling loose so I used a mirror and a flash light to look under the front seat. As you know the rudder pedals mount on torque tubes which run under the front seat. These torque tubes have flat stock tabs which run up parallel to the rudder pedal. The rudder cables connect to these vertical tabs. On the mid wing the cables run directly aft from the tabs and induce no side loads. On the low wing John gathered the rudder cables almost together on the fuselage center line where he ran them though a guide and then through a relatively small hole in the spar carry though box. These converging cables add side loads to the vertical tabs on the rudder pedal torque tube, and on my plane both were bending toward the center of the fuselage. The right one was just starting to bend, but the left one was at about a forty five degree angle. They are under the seat so you don't see them. As the y bend they reduce the leverage on the rudder cable and you get less travel for a given amount of rudder input, not a good thing. It is an easy fix as you can take the pedals out and weld in a forty five degree brace to the torque tube, but I thought you might want to tell the Sonerai net guys to look under their front seat. I would but I cant get on lately, think I messed up my pass word.
Rog
