RV-10 Heavy wing

[Dave'sRV]

First flight of my RV 10 last Friday and I have a heavy left wing. Van's suggests a wedge on the bottom or the aileron. The 10 has a solid trailing edge so I cannot pinch it. Any suggestions?

 

[Mike S]

Congrats!!

First flight of my RV 10 last Friday

Dave, congratulations on the fledging of your new bird

Have you checked the flap alignment??

 

[BobTurner]

Look very carefully at the vertical height of the ailerons. I too had a left wing heavy that was fixed by lowering the left outboard aileron attach bracket by 1/32 to 1/16", by slotting the holes. Vans sells undrilled brackets if you don't want to slot the holes.

 

[pierre smith]

David, was the ball perfectly centered?

I have a wedge on my rudder because of a left-turning tendency without it, so it's actually the rudder, not my ailerons, or a heavy left wing.

Best,

 

[RV10inOz]

not unusual

a small tab under the aileron out of sight works

 

[douglassmt]

Wing tip

I'm nearly convinced that my heavy left wing is due to my left wing tip trailing edge flaring up about 1/2" while the right one is perfectly straight. I have a wedge under the right aileron which allows me to trim it out. I'll probably try fixing it this winter. Bottom line, check angles of incidence and wingtip/aileron/flap alignment at reflex flap setting. They should be straight and the angles of incidence of the two wings should be the same. A pretty common problem I'm told but the magnitude can vary.

 

[rwwende]

any pictures you could post of the tab placement etc? Thanks

 

[douglassmt]

No

No pix, but I just used one of the rudder wedges from Avery (I think), adhesive attached to bottom outboard trailing edge of aileron on the light wing. One wasn't enoug for me, so I have two until I fix my left wingtip...

 

[Bill.Peyton]

I too have a left wing heavy. It is definitely not as bad with weight in the right seat. I also believe my trailing edge on the left tip, is flexing upward more than the right. It's unfortunate that adjusting the left flap down a slight amount is not acceptable, that according to vans. It needs to be bottomed out in the reflex position from a structural standpoint. I also needed a small tab on the left side of the rudder.
I would also like to hear more about the hinge fix and slotting the hinge. My wing heavy is solved by 25% aileron trim, or burning 10 gallons of gas out of the left tank.
Pierre, didn't you have to redrill your rear spar attachment?

 

[BobTurner]

Carefully sighting down the wing and using a straightedge showed my left aileron was very slightly higher than the right (I was left wing heavy). I removed the outboard aileron mounting bracket, put the proper size drill thru the 2 holes and applied vertical pressure to make the holes into ovals, re-assembled using the end of the oval holes which made the aileron lower. I am guessing I moved the aileron outboard end down by 1/32", it may have been 1/16" but I don't think so.

It is amazingly sensitive to this. Made a huge difference. If you want to do a better fix, Van's will sell you an RV7 bracket un-drilled (it needs some work to fit in a -10). I didn't think I could drill the holes as accurately as apparently is needed, so I have left mine as is for now. At some point in time I may try filling the unused part of the oval with metal epoxy and re-drilling.

I think I had to remove the aileron to get at the bracket, and I think I had to remove the flap to get at the aileron inboard bolt.

 

[Bill.Peyton]

Bob, how wing heavy were you?

 

[BobTurner]

I did not quantify it, but I'd say it was uncomfortable in cruise. After burning off 15 gallons of gas from the left it was still left wing heavy.

 

[Bill.Peyton]

Dave,
How heavy is your wing? Vans suggests filling the tank and adding weight in the right seat, then quantifying the heavy wing by how much fuel you need to burn off to fly level.

BTW, congratulations on your first flight!

 

[douglassmt]

22 gallons before wedges

I did the burn off test during phase 1 and it took 22 gallons burned off the heavy wing, with no weight in the right seat, to even out the trim. After the wedges I can trim it out with about any fuel balance. However, I usually burn off the heavy left wing first by habit.

 

[Bill.Peyton]

Today I did an accurate measurement of the height difference of the left and right aileron hinge attachments. As I posted previously, I have a slight left wing heavy. Both outboard hinges were spot on. My left inside hinge is higher than the right by almost .100", which causes the top surface of the aileron to be higher than the flap surface by about the same amount. My right aileron top surface is flush with the flap top surface. I removed the hinge bracket and elongated the three holes by about half that much. I am still high by 1/32 or less. I plan on flying tomorrow after filling up both tanks to see what difference this will make. I was afraid to go overboard based on previous posted results. I will post our results after we fly.

 

[Bill.Peyton]

As promised, my results of the hinge fix were successful. Preliminary results appear to have totally eliminated my left wing heavy. I say preliminary because I did not fill the tanks prior to the test, but used the well calibrated gauges showing equal amounts of fuel in each tank.