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nicko84

I'm New Here
I'm hoping someone can help me out. I'm looking at purchasing a 4 and recently went to sit in it for the first time. One thing that was very obvious to me was that I couldn't get full aileron deflection. In fact it wasn't even close. Even trying to stretch my legs out of the way as much as possible I could only get maybe 80%.

Do any flyers/builders have any advice? Is it something that's easy to adjust or is it normal to not be able to get full deflection? I've searched previous threads and haven't been able to find any info on this issue so am starting to think I may have uniquely big legs!?

Nick
 
Nick, maybe you were looking at the wrong aileron.

Van designed the linkage so that the 'down' aileron only goes down around half as much as the 'up' aileron, to reduce or almost eliminate, adverse yaw.

There are specs in the manual as to how many degrees up and down they should go. Specs for the RV-6 are: Max travel up/down 32/17...minimum 25/15 and I believe they'll be the same for the-4 since the wing was used on the -6.

Best,
 
Hi Pierre,

Sorry I should have phrased it better. I was actually looking at the stick travel primarily as it was hard up against my leg and not at the stops. I then wiggled my leg out of the way to shove the stick as far each was as possible. From all of this I figured that in flight I could probably only get the stick to about 80% of full travel.

I've spoken to a very very experience rv4 driver and he thinks it's probably ok, although he hasn't actually seen me in it so wasn't prepared to say it's definitely ok.

I do have rather big legs, but at 5'11 I'm sure there are bigger people than me who are comfortable in a 4.

I know the owner is a few inches shorter than me, so I'm trying to work out if it's something that isn't that important or something that is easy to adjust..

Nick
 
RV Ailerons are powerful, so in routine flying I doubt you'd miss full aileron.

It would be worth investigating the seat height / rudder pedal position etc. that affect the geometry of where your legs end up. If you can get the offending part of the leg lower, then you might more aileron?

At a push, you might also be able to raise the stick pivot point a bit... on some RVs these hang on a threaded attachment and can be altered, whilst of course checking no undue effects / interferences elsewhere.
 
Fat leg syndrome

I can just barely reach my aileron stops. The limiting factor is the girth of my legs. I see no easy solution, but a total reshaping of the stick would solve the problem.

By making the stick an inverted question mark, with the hoop facing forward, the points of interference are moved further down the legs towards the knees, where there is no interference.

This sounds like a job for Ant-Splat Aero!
 
You'll barely use 1/4" of stick travel in flight. Where I see that being a problem though is needing full aileron deflection if landing in really heavy cross winds. That's a pretty heavy "the birds are walking" wind kind of day.
 
Have a look at the seat back bottom hinge. Is there room to bolt the hinge 180 degrees opposite (wire at back instead of front) and still clear the rear stick? It sounds like the builder was shorter in the legs than you are. Also try it with no bottom cushion in place just for the leg fit. You might be able to make a thinner cushion and / or move the seat back rearward to make her your AC.
 
Thanks for all the responses everyone. The seat sits a bit high for me anyway (head pressed against canopy) so that would need to go down 2 to 3 inches anyway. The seats are custom aero seats by Jon Johanson (a nearby local). Jon has been very helpful thus far and I'm sure will be able to help out with installing a new seat or adjusting the one that's in now. Sounds like the seat issue may help with the aileron issue as well. And like a few others, I should probably lose 20 lbs anyway, so that could help thin the legs out!
 
If you are 5'11" and your head is touching/pressing the canopy I would guess that, yes, your seat is probably too thick. I am 6'2" and while my head is close, it is not touching, and it's not close enough to touch when I move my head around.
 
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I'm 5'11", and my head is in the top when I sit on a 1" pad with my thighs on the bare wing spar. (in my wife's RV-4)
Some of us have long back and short legs.
As a result, my legs are pretty straight, and the stick has pretty good lateral freedom.
I don't like bumpy air tho- head takes a knockin'. :(
Anyway, the lower you can get your legs, the more lateral stick movement you get, so remove cushions and retry.
Use folded towels in place of cushions and add or subtract thickness until you find the sweet spot.
Also, you can move the bottom of the seat back by riveting in another piece of hinge material. as soon as you get the seat cushions out you will know what I mean. The straighter your legs are the more stick movement you seek. Just keep enough leg to operate the brakes at full rudder deflection.
 
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