Trim Tabs

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Guys

 

Its been a few days since I posted a dumb question and as such I'm overdue, so please indulge me.

 

On my 230, the aircraft flys balanced with no rudder input at about 110kts. To fly balanced at 120kts I need to have a small amount of constant left foot pressure on the rudder pedal. over time the pressure seems to get more and more and after a 4hr segment I feel like Ive had 1/2 a gym work out.

 

My questions of you are, At 120kts do your 230's fly fully balanced feet off, ie is mine abnormal, and can the trim tab that is attached to the rudder be bent a little to compensate? Mine is fully painted and I don't want to bend the trim tab, thinking its aluminium only to find its fibreglass and doesn't want to bend.

 

Has anyone fitted an in-flight adjustable rudder trim system and was it worth the hassle?

 

Thanks

 

Andy.

 

 

[Guest brentc]

I'd say yours is slightly ab-normal. Mine flies pretty much hands and feet off. If it doesn't, I just adjust the rudder. From memory when I built mine, it needed a 5mm offset to the right to set it up correctly as per the manual. After time when the springs settled or whatever I had to re-adjust the rudder (at the rear) and give it more off-set to the right. I'd suggest that a quick adjustment is in order.

 

After re-reading your post however and reading that you actually have a rudder trim-tab I am somewhat confused as to why the aircraft actually needs it?

 

Can you describe which way the trim-tab faces? If it's the same one as the elevator tab you probably can't change it

 

A messy alternative would be to cut off the glass one and fit an aluminium one, however an adjustment of the push-pull cable might be the tidiest method.

 

 

[Guest grantisaac]

Hi,are you on your own when this happens or 2 up?

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Grant

 

One up.

 

BTW the reference to increasing pressure over time is just muscle tiredness the pressure required of course doesn't change, only my level of annoyance does

 

 

[theoy]

Andy

 

adjust one turn on the rear push pull cable end ball joint, might solve your problem

 

cheers

 

 

[Ross]

Setting Flap rods on J160

 

Hi J160 and J160c fliers how much difference have people got in their neutral Flap settings between the LH & RH flaps after their test flights.

 

 

 

Did you do the test flight with both set the same?

 

 

 

Did you need to adjust your flap rods and if so how much?

 

 

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Regards

 

 

[jcamp]

Mine is fully painted and I don't want to bend the trim tab, thinking its aluminium only to find its fibreglass and doesn't want to bend.

Maybe find a very ancient LAME. IIRC when Pontius was a Pilot they used to stick cord to the one side of the trailing edge with the length determining the effect. Of course they didn't know much about flutter then and 120kts wasn't possible.

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Maybe find a very ancient LAME. IIRC when Pontius was a Pilot they used to stick cord to the one side of the trailing edge with the length determining the effect. Of course they didn't know much about flutter then and 120kts wasn't possible.

I was talking to a guy at work who is was also ex RAAF, eng / airframe and he suggested that there is a form of stick on rubber strip that is applied to a trailing edge to achieve the same outcome. He also suggested that I would need to consider the impact of the extra weight against the mass balance weight.

 

So with all that said, the suggestion from the others that have posted will be tried, ie an adjustment at the end of the bowden cable. I'll let people know what the outcome was after the coming w/end, pressuming that the weather co-operates

 

Andy

 

 

[brilin_air]

Doesn't the trim tab just load the cable to the rudder to prevent flutter?

 

Brian

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

wound out the end of the bowden cable 2 full turns and the result was perfect. Thanks for the advice guys.

 

Andy