Van's Air Force
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Ball bearing bellcrank replacement
- Thread starter Webb
- Start date
Nice? Sure….
Needed? Not really….. we don’t have them on any of our RV’s (they didn’t exist when they were built) and all the airplanes handle great - the RV-3 is the most delightful of all the airplanes we fly.
If you sit in a bunch of RV’s at a fly-in and move the controls around, I bet you’d have a tough time figuring out which had these kind of bearings, and which ones had the bronze bushings that were just fit nicely….
But they certainly won’t hurt to have them (except for added cost and time - if those make a difference).
Paul
Needed? Not really….. we don’t have them on any of our RV’s (they didn’t exist when they were built) and all the airplanes handle great - the RV-3 is the most delightful of all the airplanes we fly.
If you sit in a bunch of RV’s at a fly-in and move the controls around, I bet you’d have a tough time figuring out which had these kind of bearings, and which ones had the bronze bushings that were just fit nicely….
But they certainly won’t hurt to have them (except for added cost and time - if those make a difference).
Paul
2theskyy
Well Known Member
Valid points. Probably cannot tell on RV’s. Somethings I see and just like the design and the people that design them. This is one of them. I got everything Ken & Susan offer. Great folks
Tough to beat the RV3
I wish they'd offer an improved bearing setup for the base of the control sticks... that's where it takes a lot of fiddling to get all the play out of the bronze bushing setup, and even then many RVs have a little bit of slop in the pitch axis. By comparison, the aileron bellcrank upgrade seems like it would offer less tangible benefit.
JonJay
Well Known Member
Agreed.
Get on it Ken!
Although I have some play, you can’t feel it in flight. I probably wouldn’t retrofit my airplane, but if it was new, I would certainly do this.
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Sky Designs
Active Member
Maintainability is also a factor as the ball bearings used on the Sky Designs upgrade are sealed and do not need to be lubed. While it is relatively easy to "spray-lube" the bronze bushings at the stick bases, getting at the bronze bushings on the aileron bellcranks is a real challenge and, even then, one has to wonder how much lubrication actually ends-up between the bronze bushing and steel bellcrank.
The aileron bellcranks on early RV-3's and all RV-4's & RV-6's rotate on ball bearings so really nothing new...just sticking with what worked so well on those "legacy" planes.
The RV-14 design incorporates the very thing Matt mentioned - ball bearings at the bases of the control sticks. See photo.
As 2theskyy so succinctly said, "Anytime you can have ball bearings vs bushings, seems to be a win."
The aileron bellcranks on early RV-3's and all RV-4's & RV-6's rotate on ball bearings so really nothing new...just sticking with what worked so well on those "legacy" planes.
The RV-14 design incorporates the very thing Matt mentioned - ball bearings at the bases of the control sticks. See photo.
As 2theskyy so succinctly said, "Anytime you can have ball bearings vs bushings, seems to be a win."
Attachments
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Looks like it's all in the process of being test fitted, not the final installation.
Ahh yeah I see that now! Lol oops!
2theskyy
Well Known Member
I’m also trying out a new, non push/pull tube setup as well.
I cannot figure out for the life of me why my A/P doesn’t work.
J/K
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Roadjunkie1
Well Known Member
