Great Ideas...

My buddy Slim (a real craftsman) has these great ideas for Rockets but would work on any RV. First is a very simple rudder trim device made with a bungee. The other is a larger elevator trim tab for Rockets, really helps at low speed.
Enjoy!

Smokey
HR2


Rudder Trim


Big Trim

Bungee trim

Great minds think alike. I've been using a bungee trim for some time now and it works perfectly. I use an inexpensive sailboat jam cleat to secure the bungee in rudder trim. I have forgotten to disengage it a couple of times on landing with no effect on controlability.

Hi Steve......

.....I'm assuming that on your side-by-side Super Six that It'd have to be mounted on the right side so you can tug the right rudder cable, correct?

Is it not a problem to reach over the passenger?

Thanks,

Hopefully that bungee cable-grabber is not a steel widget chewing its way through the rudder cable or putting a kink in it -- that could cost you both rudder and brake on one side in an RV. That elevator tab mod looks like it could be draggier than one with a higher aspect ratio (more span, less chord.) And all of the factory planes, at least the faster ones, seem to have double trim actuators after a plane was lost to elevator flutter after the actuator failed. Just some thoughts -- after all, "no problems yet" is not nearly the same as "perfectly reliable."

smokyray said:

My buddy Slim (a real craftsman) has these great ideas for Rockets but would work on any RV. First is a very simple rudder trim device made with a bungee. The other is a larger elevator trim tab for Rockets, really helps at low speed.
Enjoy!

Smokey
HR2


Rudder Trim


Big Trim

Click to expand...

Your timing for this post is excellent. I just talked to Mark Frederick about how builders are handling these two issues.

He told me about the bungee and larger trim tab. The larger trim tab is for more pitch trim on landing, and the bungee is a clever way to retrofit rudder trim.

I think there is a more photogenic way to handle the rudder trim based on the same principal using springs. I hesitate to say better or more elegant because the bungee approach is ultimately the simplest and lightest.

It sure beats cutting open the rudder to add a tab and servo.

Vern