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I Broke a Rudder Pedal!

Phugoid

I'm New Here
So after (or during) landing at my home airport earlier this week, the right rudder pedal broke. I knew something was "off" during the flight because the right rudder pedal position was more forward than the left pedal when the rudder was neutral.

After landing, I had to push nearly full forward on the pedal to get any steering to the right! I'm just glad there was little crosswind and that I didn't lose control and become yet another statistic!

After a little research on VAF, I discovered this was a known issue on earlier RV6s. Mine was finished in 1998 (I'm not the builder. I've owned it for about 4 years.)

SB 99-6-1 is the fix. Unfortunately, mine did not have this SB completed!

If you have a pre-1999 RV6, you might want to check to see if your pedals have been reinforced! The potential for disaster was real. :eek:
 

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Did that in our 6A on takeoff. It didn't just give - it broke off. A real eye opener! I was slid forward as much as I could get and had my foot on the firewall. Was even tapping on the brake trying to keep it on the runway. Didn't have time to diagnose why I was headed off the left side so I rotated and put in some roll to keep from hitting the tower. Once I got away from the ground I was able to figure out that it was busted which left me with an interesting landing to do in a left crosswind. If you've got an older 6(A) with hanging rudder bars, you should really be crawling under the panel and looking for cracks per the SB. It isn't much fun when it lets go.


Ed Holyoke
 
Happened to me landing my RV6 at Palo Alto in 2000. Single bolt holding tail wheel to tail spring sheared and the tail wheel flopped over 90 degrees. Plane went left. With full right brake, we made a controlled exit to the left onto a taxi way stub.

Purchased new overhead pedals from VAN's with gussets installed.

Tailwheel now has two bolts and is always checked at condition inspection.

SB-99-06-1 is important. Lots of RV6's changing hands these days and I recommend new owners understand whether or not this SB has been performed on their planes. Applies to both RV6 and RV6A.

IMG_0183.jpeg
 
The takeaway: check those SBs from Vans!

As a bonafide "old-timer" I remember this SB well, as it came out about 3 months before I had my plane ready to fly. Of course my weldements were already installed by then but I pulled them and had them modded before first flight.

One other thing especially for people with older -6s (not -A) is the landing gear tubes in the engine mount. I don't think it's an SB but at some point they added a gusset at the bottom of the landing gear tube where all the engine mount tubes come together. It's a hard area to see, at the back / bottom side of the tube next to the firewall. But doing a condition inspection at around 1200 hrs I saw that it had developed cracks on both sides. Which is when I found out about this modification. I suppose maybe my choices to land at some some not-so-improved not-so-much airstrips may have had something to do with it, and I don't think it's an immediate airworthiness item but something to check. Definitely not a small thing to have to deal with, as I had to pull the engine / engine mount, have it stripped and welded and re powder-coated, and put it all back together. Isn't airplane maintenance fun?
 
+1 on the “Check the Service Bulletins”! You can go to Van’s web site and with very little effort, build a complete list of SB’s that apply to your aircraft. Build a spreadsheet to track repetitive and completed SB’s, and see how much better you feel when they are all complied with.

No - SB’s are not required, but consider your thoughts if you have a problem and damage your machine because you didn’t comply with one. Take care of them - you’ll sleep better!
 
My hangar neighbor at the time had built and sold a -6, which crashed in Minnesota not too long after the SB was released. The rudder pedal failed in a crosswind landing.

This is an important one and can bite you.
 
My -6 didn't have the SB when I bought it, but on the import inspection the inspector found the start of a crack at one of the tube-to-tube welds. Never noticed any squishiness on the pedal during the flight home with it, thankfully. Getting the pedal weldments out of the footwell, and then back in, was the hardest part of complying with the SB.

Now I wish I had powdercoated them rather than just painting them with a rattle can. I'll need to remove them again at some point and have them re-coated as the paint is getting rather worn where the feet rest.
 
My -6 didn't have the SB when I bought it, but on the import inspection the inspector found the start of a crack at one of the tube-to-tube welds. Never noticed any squishiness on the pedal during the flight home with it, thankfully. Getting the pedal weldments out of the footwell, and then back in, was the hardest part of complying with the SB.

Now I wish I had powdercoated them rather than just painting them with a rattle can. I'll need to remove them again at some point and have them re-coated as the paint is getting rather worn where the feet rest.

Zip tie a piece of fuel hose over the tube below the pedal.
 
Getting the pedal weldments out of the footwell, and then back in, was the hardest part of complying with the SB.

Getting the bearing blocks out can indeed be a character building experience. But if the blocks are split horizontally while you have them on the bench they are much, much easier to reinstall. A flat washer or shim can go between the halves to compensate for the material that is lost when the blocks are cut in half.
 
I have floor mounted pedals but just completed the SB. Hopefully something I never have to do again !:D
 

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overhead pedals

Vans sent this kit, see photo, for the SB for the overhead pedals. There are 8 tabs to weld on. There was no charge for the parts, 20 years into the build, that's pretty good support and service from Van's I thought. I still need to get someone to TIG weld them on. The picture is upside down, not sure why, maybe it's because of where I live!
 

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