I searched through the forums to see if this has been discussed and if it’s there, I failed to find it.
While prepping to land yesterday, I noticed that there seemed to be a dead spot in the manual elevator trim. Initially, as I turned the trim wheel, I felt the normal knob-turning resistance and decreasing stick force. Then there was a part of the knob turn that had no (or at least a lot less) resistance and the forces on the stick didn’t change. Turning slightly further and the operation returned to what has felt normal for the past 16 years.
My hangar-mate confirmed for me today that the elevator trim tab did stop moving at the point of no knob resistance and then began to move again when the resistance returned.
I should note that this was “nose-up” trim where this occurred after flap extension on downwind. Nose-down trim didn’t seem to have this “dead” spot.
Post-flight inspection revealed no signs of abnormalities with the tab, cable, or cable attachment points. I thought I'd check here prior to disassembling the trim cable from the trim knob mechanism to see if anyone else has seen this. If so, what was the corrective action?
Regards,
Rob
N706DR
RV-7A
While prepping to land yesterday, I noticed that there seemed to be a dead spot in the manual elevator trim. Initially, as I turned the trim wheel, I felt the normal knob-turning resistance and decreasing stick force. Then there was a part of the knob turn that had no (or at least a lot less) resistance and the forces on the stick didn’t change. Turning slightly further and the operation returned to what has felt normal for the past 16 years.
My hangar-mate confirmed for me today that the elevator trim tab did stop moving at the point of no knob resistance and then began to move again when the resistance returned.
I should note that this was “nose-up” trim where this occurred after flap extension on downwind. Nose-down trim didn’t seem to have this “dead” spot.
Post-flight inspection revealed no signs of abnormalities with the tab, cable, or cable attachment points. I thought I'd check here prior to disassembling the trim cable from the trim knob mechanism to see if anyone else has seen this. If so, what was the corrective action?
Regards,
Rob
N706DR
RV-7A