Heavy Wing Developed

[BoydBirchler]

A common way to adjust a heavy wing is to lower that aileron by ovaling the aileron hinges attach holes to lower the ailerons vertical position. If that had been done and the hinge bolts loosened up, letting the aileron slide up, you would see that wing become heavy again.

[plehrke]

Originally Posted by BoydBirchler

A common way to adjust a heavy wing is to lower that aileron by ovaling the aileron hinges attach holes to lower the ailerons vertical position. If that had been done and the hinge bolts loosened up, letting the aileron slide up, you would see that wing become heavy again.

Really? I do not think that would be considered an acceptable fix. Kind of scary to me.

[BruceBohannon]

Check (or remember) to see if there was a piece of welding rod taped to the bottom TE of the left aileron. If there was one, and it’s now missing, that would cause a right roll change. If not, that’s an easy way to adjust roll trim
BB

[John-G]

BamBam-

One possible area that has not been mentioned yet is the cantilevered wing skin aft of the rear spar. Use a straight edge starting at a wing rib and make sure the skin aft of each wing's rear spar is on the same plane as the wing skin forward of the rear spar ... tweak as necessary and slowly make your way across the wing. Below is a link to a photo showing the aft area a little too high on my bird ... looking closely at the photo, you can see a small gap under the straight edge.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YDIzWxpT_...0/DSC02429.JPG

My bird had a slightly heavy left wing after construction was completed ... and, in my case, there were areas aft of the rear spar that were not on the same plane as the wing skin forward of the rear spar ... some places were a little high and others a little low on each wing. I used a small block of wood and tweaked every few inches to get that area as straight as possible.

That fixed the heavy wing .... until I got the bird painted. Apparently just the pressure from sanding the skin was enough to bring back the heavy wing (but not as bad) so I needed to tweak the area aft of the rear spar once again to obtain hands off level flight.

I'm guessing it is possible just a little too much pressure during washing or waxing could have moved the wing skin just enough to be noticeable. This may not be your issue ... but easy enough to verify.

Happy flying,

[Dennis_I]

Originally Posted by BoydBirchler

A common way to adjust a heavy wing is to lower that aileron by ovaling the aileron hinges attach holes to lower the ailerons vertical position. If that had been done and the hinge bolts loosened up, letting the aileron slide up, you would see that wing become heavy again.

Making oval holes on flight controlls or any other thing on an aircraft is not acceptable

[lr172]

Originally Posted by Dennis_I

Making oval holes on flight controlls or any other thing on an aircraft is not acceptable

And how is your alternator held in place?

[Freemasm]

The engine was certified like that and an alt bracket isn’t primary structure. A lose belt and a flight surface that could move in a slot/change aero/induce flutter are very different. I’m positive you already knew that and were making a point about “absolute” type statements.

[Desert Rat]

I've seen the slotted aileron hinge process discussed on here quite a few times as a method of correcting an aileron that's mis-located vertically.

The caveat is that it's a flight test item for a short period of time, and once you understand what the correct position should be, the follow up is to order new undrilled hinges from Vans and locate proper holes in the proper position.

100% agree that it would be a horrible practice to leave them slotted over the long haul, but you could certainly see a scenario where it might have happened, and in this case be worth investigating, especially if the OP didn't build his airplane

[BamBam-4]

Last night we checked the incidence of the wing at the root and out towards the tip of the wing. Right wing had 8.8 degrees at tip, 8.7 on the root. Left wing had 8.7 at the tip and 8.6 at the root. At most, .2 degree split across both wings. I flew to breakfast this morning and noticed that if I bumped my flaps down about 3/4 “ or so the air raft quickly came back straight and level with no pressure. Why would that be?

Thanks for all of your replies everyone!