12-29-05 Update...Random Stuff

The rudder stops, made and installed to the drawings, didn't stop the rudder. The elevator did, which wasn't good for either. Tim Lewis showed me how he fixed it on his RV-6A, so I happily copied it. Tim's RV is parked in a T-hangar about 100' from my office...whenever he's working on it during business hours, I spend a little while looking it over for ideas. It was Tim who gave me my one and only ride in an RV...a "free" ride that will end up costing me as much as a Mercedes Benz.

Tim's solution (I don't know if he invented it, but I'll give him credit anyway) is to build up the rudder arm with some 1/8" plate, cut to fit and installed with flush rivets. It fits in the profile of the existing rudder arm.

The optional aileron trim ought to be installed at the same time as the control stick assembly. Not doing so added an hour of unnecessary work. Since it's an optional part, the normal drawing set and instructions don't mention it. Oh well...lesson learned. The aileron trim consists of an electric actuator which biases the stick one way or the other by stretching springs. After I took this photo, I removed the safety wire and did it over again, to get more preload on the springs. They're supposed to stay more or less tight throughout the range of the ailerons. Also, no contact with fixed structure is allowed throughout the pitch and roll ranges. You can feel the springs as you move the stick, but I suspect that it'll be unnoticeable compared to the air loads. I certainly didn't notice it while flying Tim's RV-6A, which has manual trim (I assume that aside from the deletion of the actuator, the two are identical.)