Likely true of a lot of us but that ain't where I was going ...
On Thursday, in an effort to escape the doldrums of cabin fever, I went to the airport to put some air under the tires. My brother was there with his youngest grandson. Zachary is seven years old and had been asking about an airplane ride for the last few weeks. The weather, although a little windy, wasn't too bad so after adding his booster seat to the cabin and strapping him in with a video device we headed out to the runway.
Run-up was fine and all went well as I added power and the Corvair drew us briskly down the runway and into the evening air. But something wasn't right. I was having to push the stick too much on climb-out. I checked the trim and it was as it should have been so my mind began pondering what else the cause could be. It was something to be concerned with but nothing to be alarmed over so we did a short hop around the pattern and came back in and landed.
After a check of the trim system I found that the set screw for the cable to trim lever connection was slightly loose and while it would trim nose up (because of the way the piano wire was captured in the connector) it would slip when trying to add nose down trim. After tossing the original hardware and making my own version of what Aircraft Spruce calls a "bug nut" the trim system works as good or better than it ever has.
I wanted to share this as, to be honest, the trim system is something I hardly ever check on preflight or run-up. I do set the trim lever for take-off but don't look to actually see (even if I could) where the elevator trim tab is at.
Something to add to my preflight checklist.
Dale
On Thursday, in an effort to escape the doldrums of cabin fever, I went to the airport to put some air under the tires. My brother was there with his youngest grandson. Zachary is seven years old and had been asking about an airplane ride for the last few weeks. The weather, although a little windy, wasn't too bad so after adding his booster seat to the cabin and strapping him in with a video device we headed out to the runway.
Run-up was fine and all went well as I added power and the Corvair drew us briskly down the runway and into the evening air. But something wasn't right. I was having to push the stick too much on climb-out. I checked the trim and it was as it should have been so my mind began pondering what else the cause could be. It was something to be concerned with but nothing to be alarmed over so we did a short hop around the pattern and came back in and landed.
After a check of the trim system I found that the set screw for the cable to trim lever connection was slightly loose and while it would trim nose up (because of the way the piano wire was captured in the connector) it would slip when trying to add nose down trim. After tossing the original hardware and making my own version of what Aircraft Spruce calls a "bug nut" the trim system works as good or better than it ever has.
I wanted to share this as, to be honest, the trim system is something I hardly ever check on preflight or run-up. I do set the trim lever for take-off but don't look to actually see (even if I could) where the elevator trim tab is at.
Something to add to my preflight checklist.
Dale