Hi,
I have a 20 year old 1300 hours flight time used RV6A and I noticed, that the aileron deflection is one inch more to the right side than to left.
When the stick is in the middle position, the aileron are aligned.
Can this be a problem ?
Thanks, Achim
Just to note, having excessive travel (missing or incorrect stop) can be a critical safety issue. With the bell crank arrangement on the -6, it is possible for the bell crank to travel over-center if improperly rigged. This could result in a locked aileron and loss of control.
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Edit: Thanks for making me go back and find my post about it, allowed me to edit it and restore photos that got orphaned with Dropbox, sure hope Imgur stays free!
I agree that proper rigging should always be confirmed, but it actually isn't possible for the aileron control system on an RV-6 to be jammed by an over center condition.
The reason is that in an over center condition, the force applied from the stick (and the opposite aileron wanting to move back in trail) will be pulling on the bell crank to remove if from the over center condition.
I had a similar problem with my old RV-4.
On the ground, full right stick and the aileron would hit the stop, with a nice solid feel, before the stick ran out of travel...
but...full left stick and the stick would run out of travel before the ailerons hit the stop...felt like something was binding rather than a clean "stop". Also left aileron had measurably less "up" travel, despite the control stick having more left travel.
...it also had a very heavy right wing that I couldn't cure.
So after carefully measuring the bellcranks, and comparing them to the plans, the left bellcrank was found to be installed upside down (easy to do, the bellcrank's pivot lengths difference is only 3/8" and the plans don't explicitly state which way to install it--shorter throw could either go to the aileron or control stick pushrod--and it fits either way.)
Flipping the bellcrank:
- cured the heavy wing;
- both ailerons hit the stops;
- and, the stick/aileron travel became symmetrical.
By the way, I was 3rd owner, the airplane had been flying for over 20 years and 600 hours with the left bellcrank upside down!