carguy614

carguy614

Well Known Member
Hello all,
Chasing down a heavy left wing on my 9A, and it occurred to me that I may not have my flaps in perfect trail. I used a straightedge across the top of my wings to determine the setting, but wondered how others have determined trail settings, and if anyone has dropped a flap on the heavy side to attempt a correction for the heavy wing. Any comments most appreciated!!

Regards...
Chris
 
Dropping the flap likely won't be the answer to your problem. As an experiment I tried dropping my flap to correct for my heavy wing and it took 10 1/2 turns on the rod end bearings which had to be done at both ends of the short rod that goes to the flap. The flap was so obviously out of trail and screwed up that I had to put it back. It did start to give the desired effect, but it took a lot of adjustment. You'll want to slot the brackets for the ailerons and raise or lower the end or ends of the one that is not like the other side. This will work wonders for you.
 
I guess I have had better luck than Bryan. I fixed a several heavy wings with just a 1/2 to 2 turn on RV's. Make sure you have the proper amount of threads still engaging the rod end bearing. If you have to turn it out more than a turn look into turning the other flap the opposite direction.

How do the flaps line up with the bottom of the fuselage? Are they even?
 
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flap adjustment and heavy left wing

In trail, my flaps came up about 1/2" below the belly skin on both sides, which required bending up the lower flap skin to contact the belly when the flaps are retracted. they are perfectly even on both sides. Wing sweep and dihedral is right on. As a temporary fix, I now have a trim tab taped to the top of the left aeileron, and it flys level. Ball centered at all speeds, so I don't suspect any influence from rudder trim. What I do see as a potential issue is the left wingtip out of alignment. the tip is up about 3/8" on the left, and tip is about 1/8" down on the right. This might make it screw down to the left. This is measured with the aeilerons lined up with the flaps. I wonder how much effect this may have on trim. What method have you used to determine aeileron alignment, and in which direction did you slot your aeileron to achieve level trim? How about a trim tab on the bottom of the left wingtip trailing edge to test effectiveness of repositioning the wingtip? Your thoughts appreciated!!

Thanks...Chris
 
Have you painted the plane yet? Are you completey finished with the fairings, pants, ect?

Remember, if you are going to the left with just you in the plane, ....you get the picture. ;)
 
same problem

My airplane flew saturday for the 1st flight with a heavy left side also, both
flaps were all the way up to the bottom skin, rigging is good, maybe the
right wing tip is up a 1/4 inch , painted, gear fairings no wheel pants yet
(I don't want to knock them off yet) keep an eye on the brakes ect,
anyway I unscrew the left flap rod about 4 turns the 1st time per the
test pilot , now the aileron trim is not maxed out to one side, I have not
sqeezed any trailing edges, but I don't really like having one flap hanging
down about 1/4 to 3/8 , printed out the heavy wing paper from vans
and will address this when I get a day off.. test pilot is about 200 lbs
I think , (I weigh 165) not sure how I will address this yet, but I hope
I don't have to resort to slotting the bracket they are qb wings we
used a digital level to 1/10th of a degree on top of a 6 foot level for
wing incidence, they are set as close I I could get.. but I am going to
keep trying to fix this according to the vans procedure..

Danny..
 
I was having a problem with a heavy left wing drop during dirty stalls. Clean the plane always stalls straight, no wing drop. Dirty it would have a violent left wing drop. I used a digital level to check the incidence on the flaps and saw that they were off a bit. I ended up lowering the right flap (I know it sounds strange) and it definitely helped. I still get a slight left wig drop during a dirty stall; However, it is now no where near as violent as it was before.

D.
 
Wingtips must be aligned.

Misalignment of wingtips can greatly influence roll trim.
They have quite a long moment arm to work with.
 
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I adjusted my flap.

So my planes a little odd, but the right wing was heavy. I adjusted the right flap down to address the problem.

Kent
 
My experience has been that almost always the problem is in the ailerons...

I had a heavy wing in my aircraft and could not find the problem even after moving brackets numerous times on the ailerons, moving flaps etc.. Then I spoke to Henry from Aircrafters and he explained that its almost always in the ailerons and that the wing tips are almost never the problem regardless of how off they may look. Also, that the flaps are nearly never the problem.

It turned out that one of my ailerons was not FLAT on the bottom but instead slightly rounding on the surface. He explained that this then acts like the upper surface of the wing, but in reverse, thus pulling that portion of the wing down instead of keeping the pressure constant. This was causing my heavy wing. My other aileron was indeed flat on the bottom. I got him to make me a truly flat aileron for my 6, put it on and it flew straight without any other adjustment. I was very impressed to say the least.

I hope this helps.

Hugh.
 
Common 9 problem??

I also had a heavy left wing and it was really bad. Bryan and I have talked about this before and there was some belief that the early tips were twisted by the fiberglass molder.

During testing I tried several things to straighten it out. First was adjusting the flaps. While this helped, it made for a very unstable plane during slow flight/landing so my test pilot nixed the idea. Eventually both my ailerons wound up slotted. Right one is up and the left one is down. I also put a pound and a half of lead in the right tip. This is the one aspect of my plane that bothers me to this day.

I do believe that my ailerons and flaps have twists which exacerbates this problem. I've thought about remaking them, but that probably won't happen now that I have been flying for three years.

I was also thinking about taking the tips off and flying it to see how much of a difference it makes, but I've never done that either.
It just goes to show you that once you start flying that stuff just goes by the wayside.

9/11/08 was the third anniversary of 339A first fight. My wifes birthday is today so we went to Salida for lunch at her favorite place The Country Bounty. When we landed back at FTG the tach showed 446.5 hours not too bad for three years. (Of course I just got 15 hours of time this past week flying to Seadrift, Texas and back for a work project, but that's another story)
 
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