Jamie
Well Known Member
I've had some down time lately at the day job twiddling my thumbs watching the clock on my computer tick by so I've had some time to do some thinking.
The first time I flew a rental DA-20 Eclipse I was impressed with the control lock they have. It's simple, you don't have to worry about forgetting to remove it before flight, and it's one piece that locks the ailerons, elevators AND rudder in place.
I can see no reason this would not be a good design to work on the RV. If you make the stick-to-rudder pedal tube adjustable/telescoping it will work regardless of where the builder has placed his/her rudder pedals. I can also see no reason this wouldn't work well on every RV model. The only modification required on the plane would be installing the clips on the underside of the panel.
The drawings make it look like a complicated affair, but believe me it's butt-simple. Once it's adjusted to your airplane you pull it in and out in as long as it takes you to snap the two straps into the connectors under the panel.
So what do you folks think?
Here's the control lock from the Eclipse manual:
The first time I flew a rental DA-20 Eclipse I was impressed with the control lock they have. It's simple, you don't have to worry about forgetting to remove it before flight, and it's one piece that locks the ailerons, elevators AND rudder in place.
I can see no reason this would not be a good design to work on the RV. If you make the stick-to-rudder pedal tube adjustable/telescoping it will work regardless of where the builder has placed his/her rudder pedals. I can also see no reason this wouldn't work well on every RV model. The only modification required on the plane would be installing the clips on the underside of the panel.
The drawings make it look like a complicated affair, but believe me it's butt-simple. Once it's adjusted to your airplane you pull it in and out in as long as it takes you to snap the two straps into the connectors under the panel.
So what do you folks think?
Here's the control lock from the Eclipse manual:
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