S

Seppe

Member
I was wondering if Vans changed the rudder .016 skins up to the .020. Did they start making the kits in the later years like this??? If so what year did this change???

Also, I heard a little about the control stick failing, is this true????? Is there an easy way to determine if the stick is original, or aftermarket???

Thanks
 
I just bought a new RV-4 tail kit this year and it came with .016" skins for the elevators and rudder. There was no option for .020" skins. I think they are available for order, but the kits still come with .016".

I hadn't heard about the stick issue and can offer no insight.
 
No stick failures in any RVs that I have heard of, there frankly is no way you could break the stick in an RV. I believe I heard of a failure in a rocket or some such that had an aluminum stick that had been drilled at the pivot point for the wires to come out. The closest thing I have heard in an RV-4 was the elevator push tube coming loose (the bolt that holds it to the stick) and coming off the front stick and the pilot reached behind his seat and landed the plane using the rear stick.
 
He is maybe talking about this service bulletin:

SB 07-2-6: Affixing the passenger control stick permanently

Date issued: February 6, 2007

Applies to: All two place RV?s with dual control sticks.

Synopsis: An incident was reported in which a side-by-side RV aircraft was involved in a hard landing after the passenger side control stick was inadvertently pulled from it?s receptacle during the landing flare. The aircraft was being operated from the right seat at the time of the incident.
 
0.020 rudder skin

The 0.020 rudder skin is optional. You will have to ask for it, it's in the list with PN R-401-020. We built our rudder with such a skin, lately. We did not buy a kit, but all the single parts, because we just needed the rudder.
 
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