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Diagnosing in flight " banging"

AZtailwind

AZtailwind

Well Known Member
There I was! :confused::confused:
About 30 miles NE of bishop CA descending through 12,500 after crossing the White Mnts. In the 6A From So. Lake Tahoe to Jean NV- cruising at 170 MPH
It started as a faint rattling of some kind, thinking maybe baggage behind me is vibrating on something. Or the baggage bulkhead cover. I?m able to reach around in parts of the baggage but not really convinced it is inside- Then 10 minutes later or more, it?s getting a little louder Thinking it sounds like slapping of something outside or in the engine!! GPS says Bishop is close but on the west side of this 14,000 foot range.
Did you ever have your heart start up your throat in a slow motion? Heart rate gets a little louder. Throat gets thirsty - tell yourself to breath. Take a deep breath?
I?m on Nor Cal Center freq so someone will know where I?m at in my last track! But in this Valley Nor-Cal Center is not hearing me so well but the other experimental is.
The banging sound gets louder!
Engine indications look good, and when I reduce throttle the sound does not change so probably not a rod or spinner going. Buy this time one of those two things would have shown itself-in a bad way. At the same time I slow down as a precaution as if a control surface is not coming loose. I don?t really believe that, plenty of altitude, plenty of strait dirt roads down there but still ? this is such a remote Desert Valley. No Home Depot, no Nuttin. Beaty NV looks like the best place to set this thing down. Maybe the Com antenna had let go and is hanging on by the coax! But I would have no reception and Center can hear me most of the time with this radio check. Maybe the rear fiberglass fairing!
Now slowing to 110 Mph and it?s getting faint, something slapping, real faint now. GPS says 10 miles to Beaty?.keep the decent at pattern speed,
Landing and taxi into the Beaty tarmac a non event,
So it?s not the Com antenna, not the vertical fairing, and not a joke!
Ah Haa! I should have known!:D:D

What was this little loud problem??
 
"banging"

Excellent- Mel, DR and 914WR zapped it in a half second-
It stumped me for 15 minutes!
thanks for playing ;) Your beer is waiting in No. AZ

So rather than just stuffing the rubber back into its slot,
Did you add anything in it so this "little loud" would not reappear??
 
Rubber strip

Sorry I missed the vote! Been there, done that....
A little 3M Weatherstrip Adhesive (#08008) and it has behaved for 3 years.

John Clark
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA
 
AZtailwind said:
So rather than just stuffing the rubber back into its slot,
Did you add anything in it so this "little loud" would not reappear??
Click to expand...

You could put a couple dabs of proseal on it before you stuff it back in it's home. It's what we do on helicopters at my day job...
 
More than RV's

All the Hawker 125 jets have a rubber strip that goes between the upper wing fairing and wing that is bonded to the plank with aerodynamic sealer. Occasionally a section of this will come unbonded. Just as the aircraft rotates, the high pressure under the wing and in the wheel wells combined with low pressure on top makes it buzz in the worst kind of way - kinda like a woopie cushion! It can sure make a passenger come unglued. :D

We once had one of our crews shutting down engines one at a time thinking they had one of them coming apart. It's funny what being scared will make you do.
 
Count me in for this club. I had the same thing happen to me...on about my fourth flight! Luckily I happened to have a chase pilot and I asked him if he saw anything come lose and he spotted the rubber flopping around.
 
Securing that gap strip

I found that pliobond on a well cleaned, oil free part has kept the strip on for 350+ hours. I also drilled through both the strip and metal at the end and secured with .032 safetywire. Two small passes through both, you can't see it. No movement.
 
That hurt!

I can't tell you how much that hurt when that happened to me! Louise had just lifted me off from the College Station airport when I started feeling that thing slap against my belly. Beaten with a rubber strip! I was scared that Louise had found out about my earlier antics and was punishing me! :eek:

I heard Louise talk to the tower and tell them that she thought she had left the oil fill door open and needed to return. On the ground, she just tucked it back in. She and Paul put some Pliobond on once we got home and I'm feeling a little more secure now.;)
 
So is this a tail-dragger issue?

My intersection fairing seem to hold mine in place.

Kent
 
Weatherstripping

kentb said:
My intersection fairing seem to hold mine in place.
Click to expand...
....So far :D .... This is one to look at with all RV's with that rubber strip.
I'm going to tie this "loose end" with pliobond.
"The Weatherstripper" is acually a solo drum act... push the knob all-the-way-in and he'll get real loud :eek:
Thanks
Brad- RV6A ?drummer?
 
wing root fairing rubber strip

What's the current wisdom on the best solution to this problem? Mine is not banging, but sounds like ball bearings in the engine.

https://youtu.be/2FE5YXUjm8c

IMG_1900.jpg

I'm thinking of taping over the whole thing with some duct tape - tried electrical tape and it blew off in the first few minutes.
 
Mickey, watched your vid... would now try a strip of HST, better adhering properties, and better looks :), don’t forget to use some soft shape, like the end of a screwdriver, to iron it down to shape.

PS
If it ain’t no help we’ll swop aircraft :D
 
Not exactly the same-----But-----

Not exactly the same, but good for a laugh. Took off out of Atlanta in an RV 727 (See--its RV related) Flight attendants came running up saying there was this god awful sound coming from a rear galley supply door. This door is what--maybe 12--15 feet up? When the galley truck would come up, to load it up with food, this door would be wide open. Therefore, there was a strap that hooked from left to right, just in case someone "leaned" a bit too far out the door. On the end of this strap was a metal buckle. Yep, you guessed it, the flight attendants slammed the door shut, and part of that strap was hanging outside. The buckle was beating the living ----- out of the side of the fuselage.

No way we could open a pressurized door in flight---had to land first. Yeah, the paint job and metal were beat to heck. At least it didn't come off and go thru the #1 engine. (That door was right there in front of the engine.)

So the next time I have my RV 8 catered-------------------------
 
John Clark said:
Sorry I missed the vote! Been there, done that....
A little 3M Weatherstrip Adhesive (#08008) and it has behaved for 3 years.
Click to expand...

Thanks again to the VAF knowledge base! Read this original thread many years ago and used this 3M adhesive on the wing root fairing rubber strip. Never had it come loose in 900 hours AND if it does, I’ll know what to expect.
 
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