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New and Unusual Ways to Screw Up

DonFromTX

Well Known Member
I try to make mistakes that are very personal, not stuff others have done. This is my latest, yesterday after hooking up the stabilator cables to the stabilator, I decided to look and see if they were not tangled with the rudder cables or other stuff back there. I bet even the novices can see this problem! I am going to TRY to untwist them from the rear by taking only one cable loose, think that will work? Up and down elevator works properly, so apparently only one cable needs a 360 degree UN twisting. Jeez, I will NEVER get this thing done!
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I did something similar when I got a coax wrapped around a stabilator cable while installing a second comm antena. Fortunately I have added fuselage inspection ports which made it much easier to fix.
 
I try to make mistakes that are very personal, not stuff others have done. This is my latest, yesterday after hooking up the stabilator cables to the stabilator, I decided to look and see if they were not tangled with the rudder cables or other stuff back there. I bet even the novices can see this problem! I am going to TRY to untwist them from the rear by taking only one cable loose, think that will work? Up and down elevator works properly, so apparently only one cable needs a 360 degree UN twisting. Jeez, I will NEVER get this thing done!
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Don....that is a novel way of stopping cable slap🤓
 
Well Don, That is not all that bad of a screw up. I know it is not polite to One-Up someone when they are relaying a story but in this case I must say move over and listen to a professional screw up.

I was at about the same point as you in the build and getting ready to attach the cables to the horizontal stabilator. For fun I pulled the top cable and listened for the control stick to move up front. Cool. Then I pulled the bottom cable and heard it move and also a little thump. I pulled a little more and heard another thump and realized that the top cable was not moving in when the bottom was moving out.

Well, a look in the access panel and sure enough the bottom cable had come loose from the turn buckle. The little thumps I heard was the cable end sliding back through the 1/2" holes in the bulkheads. . . . I had purposely not threaded the cables into the turn buckle more than a few threads because I knew I would want some cable slack when I attached them to the horizontal stabilator and that they would need adjusting later. . . . Did you know there is no access to the back bulkheads without taking the fuel tank out. . . .

My fuel tank was installed, fill pipe and vents installed and sealed, everything was painted and there was about 5 gallons of gas in the tank because I had just been doing the trial running of the engine.

Fishing for the cable through the bottom access panel was a total waste of time. I gave up went home and pouted over a few beers the rest of the evening. It is amazing how beer helps you come up with really really good ideas. I was able to get it fixed and it only took about five minutes.

To be continued tomorrow. . . .
 
I can hardly wait for part two! I am hoping with my borescope camera about 3 feet long and feeling thru the inspection holes in the bottom, to determine WHICH one to disconnect first of all. If that fails, I can crawl into the space and determine that. I feel confident that once I find the right one to take loose and untwist, it will be pretty easy working thru the far rear bulkhead holes with various grabber tools. Got a mirror on a long stick that might help as well. Stay tuned for part two tomorrow!
At least with wing tanks I don't have to fight that part of the fight.
 
I can hardly wait for part two! I am hoping with my borescope camera about 3 feet long and feeling thru the inspection holes in the bottom, to determine WHICH one to disconnect first of all. If that fails, I can crawl into the space and determine that. I feel confident that once I find the right one to take loose and untwist, it will be pretty easy working thru the far rear bulkhead holes with various grabber tools. Got a mirror on a long stick that might help as well. Stay tuned for part two tomorrow!
At least with wing tanks I don't have to fight that part of the fight.

Don, what you need is a snickers bar and a grandkid. I can verify it works!
 
I just want to say, you guys are great. I really mean that.
Hearing stories like this are very entertaining, but also great lessons in humility. As far as I am concerned, there seems to be a short supply of that these days.

I knew you guys would get things squared away. Might take a little longer, but reading stuff like this makes it all worthwhile. Lessons for all of us.

Thank you.:)
 
It's a "Feature"

The old saying (at least among us engineering nerds) is "It's not a bug, its a feature". What you have here a feature which allows you to do well-coordinated unrecoverable spins.
 
Got it Fixed!

And here is how to do it: You find that it was the top cable that was twisted around the bottom one. Remove the upper cable bolt and tie a neon colored string to it so you cannot lose it. The knot was not too good, the string became loose from the cable, dropping it to the bottom of the tailcone. Fish around a while with some remote grabbing devices until you grab the cable with a lucky stroke in the blind, Pull up the cable end to its proper hole in the rear bulkhead to tie the string back on it, and find to your surprise you had accidentally untwisted it from the other cable. Hook it all back up and pretend it was your expert maneuvering with the grabbers that fixed the problem.
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To continue the saga or the disconnected elevator turnbuckle: As I mentioned after I struggled trying to fish the loose cable through the bulkheads I went home and enjoyed a few beers.

While agonizing and groveling in a drunken stupor over my "dumb a**" situation. . . Ah I mean . .. While in deep contemplation and comprehensive analysis while in an enlightened frame of mind I came up with a wild idea.

I had an old cheep round curtain rod laying in my garage. (ya, I am a packrat) It was the kind that telescopes to fit whatever size of window you have. You know, the cheep ones made from rolled tin. The small side was just big enough for the cable to slide through but the threaded end was just bigger enough to be held in place at the tip. I spread open the cheep tin rod and inserted the cable and the rod snapped back closed. Then I duct taped the rod to a 1" x 1/2" x 10 ft piece of wood molding I had laying around the garage. (I did mention I was a packrat) . . . Now I had a long bouncy pole with the threaded end of the cable sticking out.

I took the horizontal stabilator off. . . Ya know, it comes off much easier than it goes on. . .

Inside the tail section is dark, so a high intensity flashlight was set inside shinning on the small 1/2" grommet way to the front that the cable needed to pass through. Still it was difficult for my very much older eyes to focus on the little grommet. So, I used a pair of small binoculars I had in the car and with that, I could see it very clearly.

It must have been an odd sight for anyone who may happened to walk by the hanger. There, an over weight, gray haired, old fart looking through the tail end of an airplane using a pair of binoculars while holding a stick. Kind of like an aeronautical proctologist.

With surprising little difficulty I was able to slide the cable through the grommet and with total amazement was able to slide smoothly through the remaining two bulkheads right to the turnbuckle. I quickly and easily attached the cable to the turnbuckle and pulled the curtain rod out and slid out the cable. A thorough inspection between the bulkheads with the remote camera showed everything as in order.

Problem solved. . . .
 
To continue the saga or the disconnected elevator turnbuckle: As I mentioned after I struggled trying to fish the loose cable through the bulkheads I went home and enjoyed a few beers.

While agonizing and groveling in a drunken stupor over my "dumb a**" situation. . . Ah I mean . .. While in deep contemplation and comprehensive analysis while in an enlightened frame of mind I came up with a wild idea . . .

. . . With surprising little difficulty I was able to slide the cable through the grommet and with total amazement was able to slide smoothly through the remaining two bulkheads right to the turnbuckle. I quickly and easily attached the cable to the turnbuckle and pulled the curtain rod out and slid out the cable. A thorough inspection between the bulkheads with the remote camera showed everything as in order.

Problem solved. . . .
East peezy . . .
Good job!
 
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With that under control, I am ready for the next challenge - which way to turn the turnbuckle to tighten the cable, and NOT unscrew the cable from the brass thingy. I figured blowing up closeup photos would allow me to see which way the threads run, I did not need another surprise:
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Aeronautical Proctologist

...It must have been an odd sight for anyone who may happened to walk by the hanger. There, an over weight, gray haired, old fart looking through the tail end of an airplane using a pair of binoculars while holding a stick. Kind of like an aeronautical proctologist.. . .

You guys are cracking me up! :D An "Aeronautical Proctologist!" :eek:

Come to think of it, this whole experience of looking for things in the dark at the rear end of your plane kinda reminds me of that prostate biopsy I had a few years ago. YOWZA!! That was NOT a fun experience!
 
Thanks. Just a Samsung Note 4 with the HDR turned on. They are far sharper before going thru the process to get them on this forum.

Gee Don,

Your photos are beautiful! What are you using to take such sharp close-ups in tight spaces?
 
With the picture sharpness, you can see the thread pattern. Use that as a reference for turning. Good luck getting your hands in there.
 
Seems like a lot of threads showing. Mine has about three threads showing at each end of the turnbuckle barrel. Unless you are at the very end of the threads you should be able to turn it one way or the other and figure out which way is right before you disengage the threaded rod end.
 
Just had a thought. See the groove on one end of the turnbuckle. It identifies the RH or LH thread. Check your A&P reference, but I think it's the LH end.
 
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