WurlyBird
Well-Known Member
Sorry I have been so quiet here lately and I am not sure if this is the right place to post this, but whatever. Here is a quick update of my life, Got back to the States from Afghanistan on the 5th of Jan after a 4 day layover in Manas, Kurgistan. Lots of good snow ball fights during formations, it was fantastic. Since then I have been strictly hanging out at the house getting to know my 15 month old son as well as re-dating my wife. Although I did take a 3 day trip down to Florida in order to pick up the Kitfox 3 I purchased while deployed. A few days ago I started training in the Kitfox and that leads us up to this post.
So there I was flying back to the airport after 2 hours of just goofing around puting the plane through the ringer, cruising about 80 mph, when all of a sudden an updraft hits one wing and sets off a vibration in the wings. It amplified very quickly and I responded by closing throttle and climbing to slow which quickly ceased the vibe. There appeared to be a node at each wing support point as well as the cockpit, evidenced by the crazy side to side vibe we were getting. Presumeably this was due to slop in the controls which I have since checked and here is the problem. There is a detectable amount of play in every spherical bolt in the system, just a hair but noteable. From one flaperon to the other is 10 links and this adds up to a system that can not be completely tight.
I have gone through and taken out about half or maybe slightly more of the slop that was there but there is still about .1" of slop between the two control tubes. I am just trying to figure out if it would be worth it to completely rebuild the system in order to illiminate that little bit that is left. Honestly I am not sure I could illiminate it anyway. So what are the thoughts. Thanks for the help.
James
So there I was flying back to the airport after 2 hours of just goofing around puting the plane through the ringer, cruising about 80 mph, when all of a sudden an updraft hits one wing and sets off a vibration in the wings. It amplified very quickly and I responded by closing throttle and climbing to slow which quickly ceased the vibe. There appeared to be a node at each wing support point as well as the cockpit, evidenced by the crazy side to side vibe we were getting. Presumeably this was due to slop in the controls which I have since checked and here is the problem. There is a detectable amount of play in every spherical bolt in the system, just a hair but noteable. From one flaperon to the other is 10 links and this adds up to a system that can not be completely tight.
I have gone through and taken out about half or maybe slightly more of the slop that was there but there is still about .1" of slop between the two control tubes. I am just trying to figure out if it would be worth it to completely rebuild the system in order to illiminate that little bit that is left. Honestly I am not sure I could illiminate it anyway. So what are the thoughts. Thanks for the help.
James
