RV-14 Flap wear / bushing ?

[Mark Browning]

Has anyone experienced any flap wear on the flap hinge s brackets FL-1007 ?

Looking at the set up, the w-1011 bracket that is installed on the wing has a bush but the hinge brackets on the flap itself do not. !
That got me wondering .... potentially these brackets could quickly wear ?

Cessna and Piper have bushings in this area ...has any one considered installing a top hat Oil Filled Bronze Bush's in the brackets. My engineer believes this to be a good idea !

[Jake14]

The W-1025A Flap Hinge Bracket has a bushing installed (see P 21-12 figs 1 & 2)

I believe the mounting bolt should turn inside this bushing, so no wear would be expected on the FL-1007 L & R hinge brackets

[Mark Browning]

Thanks Jake

Going to have a real close look if the bolt moves with the flap then we don't have a problem; but if the bolt tuns in the flap brackets then wear will take place. I will let you know what i find

[rvbuilder2002]

The flap hinge design used on the RV-14 is nearly same as what is used on the RV-10. The only difference being that there is only two instead of the 3 used on the RV-10.

There is a lot of in service data (the RV-10 prototype now has over 2000 hrs and the RV-14A prototype has over 1200 hrs) to indicate that wear is not a problem.

If wear were ever detected, since adding a bushing would require enlarging the hole anyway, bushings could easily be installed at that time.

[Mark Browning]

Thanks for your advice Scott

The bolt does appear to turn with the flap bracket so may be the reason why you haven't had any wear problems reported, which is nice to know

Going to leave mine and check it at annual inspection

I measured it up to see what what bushing would work
Outside diameter 3/8 Inside diameter 0.25

Reamer the holes in the flap bracket using 0.375 reamer
Press fit a bronze Flanged bearing into each side of the bracket noting that the inner edge would need machining down to the width of the bracket
Use two bronze thrust washers at each end.... Job done