Henryrifle
Member
My RV-6 has an O-320 and a fixed pitch Sensenech cruise prop. I am breaking in a newly overhauled engine and therefore running it harder than I normally would. I have very few hours in this plane <20 and these hours represent all my experience in RVs.
Takeoffs require right ruder as normal.
At 5000 feet, straight and level and full throttle there is not enough left aileron trim to keep the plane from rolling right--slowly but still rolling. Also, I have to maintain some LEFT rudder pressure. More than just resting my foot on the left pedal.
At higher altitudes greater than 6500 feet and at full throttle there is enough left aileron trim to keep the plane level though I still need to rest my foot on the left rudder pedal to keep the ball centered.
In cruise descent, I need a lot of left rudder to maintain coordinated flight. Once in the pattern at pattern speeds < 120 MPH, I need right aileron trim The rudder is a non factor at that point because there is always some wind.
There is a "trim tab" glued to the tail on the left side with a slight leftward bend but as it is even with the trailing edge of the ruder I am unable to reduce the bend without squeezing the rudder and probably bending it more.
As you have accurately surmised I am not a builder and not very familiar with building aircraft. I have read about how to set up the ailerons but when I look at the trailing edge alignment of he ailerons to the wing tips and flaps, there is nothing very interesting to see. The ailerons don't line up with the the flaps and wing tips and when you align one side with the wingtip the other side is not aligned with the wing tip. I think all this means there is some amount of inaccuracy in the build--now 20 years old. Where should I start? I am not very concerned about losing a few knots of airspeed but would like to be able to fly hands off for a few seconds if that is possible. I also understand that at critically slow airspeeds some unexpected behavior could be encountered due to excessively poor rigging or wing assembly.
Lastly, while I am not flying IFR at this time, it is obvious that with the pane rigged the way it is now, pilot workload would be increased just to maintain straight and level. That's not a good thing.
Thanks in advance for your time and advice,
Hank
Takeoffs require right ruder as normal.
At 5000 feet, straight and level and full throttle there is not enough left aileron trim to keep the plane from rolling right--slowly but still rolling. Also, I have to maintain some LEFT rudder pressure. More than just resting my foot on the left pedal.
At higher altitudes greater than 6500 feet and at full throttle there is enough left aileron trim to keep the plane level though I still need to rest my foot on the left rudder pedal to keep the ball centered.
In cruise descent, I need a lot of left rudder to maintain coordinated flight. Once in the pattern at pattern speeds < 120 MPH, I need right aileron trim The rudder is a non factor at that point because there is always some wind.
There is a "trim tab" glued to the tail on the left side with a slight leftward bend but as it is even with the trailing edge of the ruder I am unable to reduce the bend without squeezing the rudder and probably bending it more.
As you have accurately surmised I am not a builder and not very familiar with building aircraft. I have read about how to set up the ailerons but when I look at the trailing edge alignment of he ailerons to the wing tips and flaps, there is nothing very interesting to see. The ailerons don't line up with the the flaps and wing tips and when you align one side with the wingtip the other side is not aligned with the wing tip. I think all this means there is some amount of inaccuracy in the build--now 20 years old. Where should I start? I am not very concerned about losing a few knots of airspeed but would like to be able to fly hands off for a few seconds if that is possible. I also understand that at critically slow airspeeds some unexpected behavior could be encountered due to excessively poor rigging or wing assembly.
Lastly, while I am not flying IFR at this time, it is obvious that with the pane rigged the way it is now, pilot workload would be increased just to maintain straight and level. That's not a good thing.
Thanks in advance for your time and advice,
Hank