don't know where this topic belongs to... i kindly ask the moderator to move if necessary.
today was my 10th solo flight with the RV7. turned from downwind (with 10° flaps) into base with 70 - 80 knots and wanted to set full flaps. suddenly there was a small bang and the airplane made a slight sag. "Ok, something's wrong with the flaps". thought about a second to abort the landing but i realized that the problem will not fix itself, if i stay in the air longer. made the landing without flaps, flare a little bit lower and faster.
i didn't touch anything before the picture was made. you can see that the thread of the rod end bearing was engaged maybe two turns or so. it comes apart by pure staring at it and i wonder how that one lasted for around 20 landings. if you lower your flaps the flap motor has to pull on the linkage, in this case the force was enough to pull the bearing out and to tear the safety wire.
what i learned so far:
1. practising no-flap-landings is a good idea. no drama in the RV-7 (i guess all RV`s) but you just should exercise it from time to time. luckily during transistion training my CFI strongly insisted to do some landings with 0° flaps and my response was "what should go wrong these?" well...
2. during construction i was a bit anal when it came to thread engagement of rod end bearings (best is more than half of thread length), but this one i just overlooked. i will check all of them on my airplane doesn't matter if they can turn or not. these thingys tend to be used mainly on flight controls and engine stuff, areas that are kinda important.
3. during critical phases of flight one should not fuss around with technical problems. just concentrate on the next opportunity to land.
4. i thought my 7 shows really great workmanship, but that doesn't have to mean a lot.
you guys take care...
Kay
today was my 10th solo flight with the RV7. turned from downwind (with 10° flaps) into base with 70 - 80 knots and wanted to set full flaps. suddenly there was a small bang and the airplane made a slight sag. "Ok, something's wrong with the flaps". thought about a second to abort the landing but i realized that the problem will not fix itself, if i stay in the air longer. made the landing without flaps, flare a little bit lower and faster.
i didn't touch anything before the picture was made. you can see that the thread of the rod end bearing was engaged maybe two turns or so. it comes apart by pure staring at it and i wonder how that one lasted for around 20 landings. if you lower your flaps the flap motor has to pull on the linkage, in this case the force was enough to pull the bearing out and to tear the safety wire.
what i learned so far:
1. practising no-flap-landings is a good idea. no drama in the RV-7 (i guess all RV`s) but you just should exercise it from time to time. luckily during transistion training my CFI strongly insisted to do some landings with 0° flaps and my response was "what should go wrong these?" well...
2. during construction i was a bit anal when it came to thread engagement of rod end bearings (best is more than half of thread length), but this one i just overlooked. i will check all of them on my airplane doesn't matter if they can turn or not. these thingys tend to be used mainly on flight controls and engine stuff, areas that are kinda important.
3. during critical phases of flight one should not fuss around with technical problems. just concentrate on the next opportunity to land.
4. i thought my 7 shows really great workmanship, but that doesn't have to mean a lot.
you guys take care...
Kay
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