Brake Pedal Alignment
 

Hey - working on the rudder and brake pedals. When I built my 7A, I kind of remember clamping the rudder bars into alignment, and then clamping the brake pedals into alignment, and finally drilling the holes for the master cylinders.

In the 10, the holes are already drilled, but when I attach everything, if the rudder bars are aligned, the brake pedals don't line up (see pic below). Am I doing something wrong, or is this just the way it is supposed to be?

Thanks,
Jason

Some people use a single long bolt to attach the two. I myself have the materials for it but haven't done it yet. I did however add springs to the master cylinders to help brake release. Mine were dragging previously.

Edit- Oops sorry I missed they were on incorrectly as well. Sorry

That's the way it is unless you drill apart one of your rudder pedals and make a custom arm for the brake pushrod to align everything to match from your feet's perspective.

That is NOT the way it is.... you can't fly like that. Van's did not intend it to be that way. Something has been drilled wrong. Looking at your photo, I would re drill the right ear to match the pedal to the left one. This would allow a tilt to the brake pedals to match the angle of your feet as they rest on the rudder pedals (bars).

You are doing something wrong. Your pedals are backwards. Side flanges should face forward not aft. This probably created an alignment problem with the M/C attachment piece with the hole in it. Suggest you go back to the plans and re-verify the proper assembly of these components. When assembled correctly, the pedals will line up quite well.

Good news is you only have to drill out a few rivets to rectify.

All that said, I purposely reversed them on the 6 to give a better foot angle on the brakes. However, nothing was pre-drilled on the 6. With the 10, I have learned a few things and have other ideas for not riding the brakes. Using the forward mounting holes with short links creates a more agressive angle for the brake pedals and should avoid inadvertant brake application. For my height anyways.

Larry

Larry is correct in that the pedals aren't assembled correctly - the side flanges should point forward. But with all 4 brake pedals having exactly the same geometry, and the rudder pedals having offset geometry, there will be a left foot/right foot mismatch between the rudder pedal geometry or the brake pedal geometry unless you modify something. The arm on one brake pedal is the easiest thing to modify.

Side flanges
 

I must be missing something. The 7 brake pedal flanges point aft like pictured. If they were forward, the piston would move down instead of up. Like I said. Maybe I'm missing it.
The holes were probably all drilled in the same place. The brake pedals are offset to get them aligned which also means the holes are not in the same places. Not familiar with those as far as adjustments. Beringer master cylinders are adjustable so the hole doesn't matter.

I jigged up my rudder bars so they were clamped together as they would be in the plane.

I then created a seat that would match the seating position.

The next thing to do was set the pedals so they were tilted forward at the same angle. The left and right pedals were at different angles wit regards to the vertical rudder bars because they come down at different angles.

It worked out GREAT!

You can rest the arch of your feet on the bars and point your toes to apply the brakes. Some RV's I have flown drilled the pedals in alignment with the vertical portion of the rudder bars and either your toes are on the bars or on the brakes, which makes it very difficult to fly.

The pedal is not shipped with that attachment bar on it. The builder rivets it on it what ever orientation he see's fit, preferably following the advice in the manual. The pedal can be assembled to work in either orientation.

Lots of advice from builders of models other than 10's. My recommendation is to follow the manual. There are usually pictures that show orientation of parts. If, when cleco'ed together correctly and a mis alignment exists, I would follow Kyle's advise to make a custom piece to get the proper alignment. My pedals were assembled by the first owner of the kit, so I have no real experience with the fit up of the factory parts. Though I would highly doubt that the first builder fabricated any parts, especially these. The lines are way too clean for the level of metal working that I saw on this kit. Fortunately there wasn't much he did and much of it I re-worked. Good news is that his rivetting on the emp was very good.

Larry

Looking at this picture, it appears that the pedals are not made from parts as other RV models are, they look like they are formed from the factory.