CreativeAir LED/ Wing heavy problem

Hi,
two different problems on my 9A anyone might have the answer to:
Having used CreativeAir/WhiskeyVictor?s LED nav lights, (those with strobe head mount) for not too many hours, a few of the green LED?s only light with limited strength, and a few others don?t light at all. Red one?s are all ok.

Since I soldered the LED?s on myself, it may of course be "finger trouble" - I may have damaged either the LED?s or their regulators, even thouh I was very careful.
Does anyone know the specs. (ser. no, brand) of these parts to replace, or if this would not work out, any other LED installation approx. the same size that holds the strobe in it.
I have like many of You tried to reach Bill VonDane without result.
It would be nice to be able to use my wingtips without to much modification.

My left wing is a little heavy, requiring full aileron trim to fly hands off. I have tried a temporary trim tab taped on the left aileron that solves the problem, but it doesn?t look nice. (Maybe I should just put it on the right aileron)
Have anyone tried using different left and right springs for the aileron trim system or maybe twisted the one of the gear leg fairings just a little bit? This last action may also require a rudder tab. Any other good ideas?
I am aware that my problem is best solved at the "root" which can even be a small empennage misalignment, and returning to that aileron trim tab, does anyone have good experience with wedge type trim tabs instead of the traditional ones?

Thanks for a great forum!

Thomas Boyner, [email protected]
Proud owner/builder of SE-XTB, the first RV-9A flying here in Sweden, 65 hours so far.

Thank you Lennart and Love for sending in that picture to Van?s who published it on the last RV-ator!

Did you read Van's instructions for correcting a heavy wing?
Did you verify the correct adjustment of the entire control system?

Our right wing was heavy.
Added the pants, and got worse (most likely because of the extra speed).
We split the wing tips to correct alignment of the trailing edge. The right wing tip did not quite align with the aileron. It was off 1/8 or so (maybe a little less).
Added 1 turn on the rod end and problem solved.
It doesn't take very much, just like Van's says...
I know that the problem wasn't in the tail or wing attachment as we spent weeks making sure that the alignment of those were spot on.

TBoyner said:

Hi,
two different problems on my 9A anyone might have the answer to:
Having used CreativeAir/WhiskeyVictor?s LED nav lights, (those with strobe head mount) for not too many hours, a few of the green LED?s only light with limited strength, and a few others don?t light at all. Red one?s are all ok.

Since I soldered the LED?s on myself, it may of course be "finger trouble" - I may have damaged either the LED?s or their regulators, even thouh I was very careful.
Does anyone know the specs. (ser. no, brand) of these parts to replace, or if this would not work out, any other LED installation approx. the same size that holds the strobe in it.
I have like many of You tried to reach Bill VonDane without result.
It would be nice to be able to use my wingtips without to much modification.

Click to expand...

Hi Thomas,

we also have the creativair led navlights that we built ourselves from the kit. they just recently quit after a mere few hours of operation. of course it might be finger trouble on our part as well... however, i suspect, them being 1st generation, some other issue...
haven't had time to investigate much yet...

rgds, bernie

Heavy wing issue

Pay close attention to the wingtip alignment on the 9.The length of the wing provides significant moment, and it doesn't take much to cause it to roll. Make sure you ballast the passenger seat as well, my 9A would always drop the left wing a bit when solo, but was hands off when equal weight was distributed side to side. My issues were solved by splitting the right wingtip to correct a 1/16" alignment offset, even though others here had stated that wingtip alignment is usually not the root cause.Vans has an aeileron bracket modification you can read about that solves the issue of heavy wing on the -9, but I would really make sure you are perfectly aligned and accurately rigged before making that modification. It was really hard to believe that such a small adjustment made so much difference in the way that airplane flew.

Hope this helps,
Chris

During my annual condition inspection last month I also found that some (9) of the green LEDs had failed. Contacted Bill Dube at killacycle.com (he made them for Creativeair) and he replies with the following:

"It takes over 30 volts of reverse voltage to damage the LEDs. (The green LEDs are the most sensitive to reverse voltage, that is why I suspect that you have this issue.) If folks have something on the same circuit that is inductive, like a strobe or a relay, the "kick" from that inductor can sometimes put a _huge_ reverse-voltage spike into the LED position lights. The negative spike also can happen if you just flip off the master without shutting off everything electronic first.

If you install the reverse-voltage blocking diodes, it will protect the position lights from the negative voltage spikes that are occurring on your specific airplane. I include these diodes with every kit these days, even though the negative spike problem is not all that common. It is a small added cost to me to protect the lights 100% from negative spikes.

Bill Dube'[/I]

He will be sending me new LEDs and a couple of diodes to handle the reverse voltage spikes. ALL FREE of CHARGE!! I suggest you contact him.
Great customer service IMHO!!

Bill

After reading this post, I checked mine and sure enough a few of my green LEDs were burnt out. So, I contacted Bill and he was very good and quick in responding back. Even though I had not purchased the kit from him and from CreativeAir, he is going to send me some LED to have them fixed. I just hope that with the added diode, it will last longer as I have only a couple of hours on these Nav lights at most.

And definitly agree, great customer service indeed.

Wingtip Trailing Edges - A Real World Experiment

I have been fighting a heavy wing too. It flies perfectly hands off with a dowel taped to the underside of one aileron, but I want to get at the real cause. I changed the height of one outboard aileron pivot, made sure they had the correct "squeeze", etc.

The big project was the trailing edges of the wing tips, they were at least 3/4 of an inch off from each other, one above, and one below the outboard edge of the neutrally positioned ailerons. So I split the trailing edges, floxed & clamped them so they are very close to perfect alignment now. Bad news is, it made not a whit of difference to the trim of the aircraft!

I am leaning towards removing all the gear fairings and wheelpants to see if that makes a difference.

Hans

nucleus said:

I have been fighting a heavy wing too. It flies perfectly hands off with a dowel taped to the underside of one aileron, but I want to get at the real cause. I changed the height of one outboard aileron pivot, made sure they had the correct "squeeze", etc.

The big project was the trailing edges of the wing tips, they were at least 3/4 of an inch off from each other, one above, and one below the outboard edge of the neutrally positioned ailerons. So I split the trailing edges, floxed & clamped them so they are very close to perfect alignment now. Bad news is, it made not a whit of difference to the trim of the aircraft!

I am leaning towards removing all the gear fairings and wheelpants to see if that makes a difference.

Hans

Click to expand...

You are correct, in all the post and friends plane that I have seen, wing tips seem to have the lease affect in wing heaviness.

Also, don't forget to check your VS and that make sure your ball is center but I suspect you have already done that.