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Aileron Rigging

rv8grover

Member
Has anyone rigged their ailerons yet? If so, how many degrees of travel do you get up and down? I'm particularly interested in Down travel. Measured Van's 14 at OSH and it was 25 degrees. I'm getting only getting 18 degrees?
Ron
 
Are you sure you measured Vans' with the proper reference?
25? sounds like too much down travel. 15? is typical aileron down travel in most aircraft. 25-30? sounds about right for up travel.
 
Aileron rigging

Mel,
One of Vans guys measured it with his I-phone so I can't account for the accuracy.
The point is, at 18 degrees my aileron pushrod rubs into the inboard aileron bracket and stops. Vans pushrod doesn't even come close to rubbing. I've been over this thing and the plans six times trying to find something put together wrong and I can't. Everything is prepunched, so I'm wondering if this might be a design problem and other people are affected?
Ron
 
torque tube rubbing

Mine rubs as well. The advice I received was wait until the wings are installed and the rigging is complete. It will not rub then.
 
The ailerons on Vans 14 travel further down than mine and the pushrod doesn't even come close to rubbing on the inboard aileron bracket?
Ron
 
aileron

I would think you would want the travel to be according the plans. I would not use some guys iPhone inclinometer as a reference for rigging.
 
I'm final rigging my ailerons now and thought I had the travel limits to check my work but I don't see them in the finish kit instructions or the wing instructions either.
Ron
 
My take when building was this, until the wings are on the plane and rigged to the sticks, you can't measure down travel.

With wings on the bench, all you can do is set neutral and possibly check up travel. The up travel stops dictate down travel of the opposite aileron.

I haven't been worried about the push rod tube making contact. Mine does, but by my estimation the down travel is more than enough and the stops will in fact stop it at the correct location before the tube makes contact.

Seems ok to me.
 
My take when building was this, until the wings are on the plane and rigged to the sticks, you can't measure down travel.

With wings on the bench, all you can do is set neutral and possibly check up travel. The up travel stops dictate down travel of the opposite aileron.

I haven't been worried about the push rod tube making contact. Mine does, but by my estimation the down travel is more than enough and the stops will in fact stop it at the correct location before the tube makes contact.

Seems ok to me.

My wings are on the plane now.
 
Ron,

Do your aileron push tubes rub before the stops are hit?

My fuselage is not finished so all I have done is rig per the wing plans to set neutral.
 
I actually have not looked. I do not feel any rubbing or hear any sound of rubbing, but I plan to look while someone else run the stick.
 
When I installed the elevator on the fuselage and drilled the holes for the elevator horn so I could check the deflection angle I had 24.5 degrees in the full down position and 27 degrees full up position. The elevator horn would touch the support bracket of the hole in the fuselage where the elevator horn goes down to attach to the push rod. The minimum distance to the horizontal stabilizer is 1 5/8 . What do I need to do.
 
We had to take the elevator off and adjust screws no less than 15 times, perhaps more.

Ultimately we had to weld fill and re-drill one of our horns.

You might be able to just adust the length of your screws to get it to even out.

[edited, see rvbuilder2002's reply below]


Also, those horns can't be replaced easily (or at all really). Lots of builders have issues in this area, it's common.

Edit: If you do have to re-drill the holes, it's painless, cheap, and fast to get them filled by a welder. I put it off for weeks thinking it would be a hassle, took about 5 minutes, you can't even tell there was a hole there before.

Edit 2: This is the step where I learned that drilling steel requires patience, very low rpm, and a lot of pressure. A few bits were lost during this endeavor, but their legacy lives on :eek: :p
 
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Those are max throws, your airplane won't be using full deflection of elevator, but you want it as close to the book as possible so it flies as designed.

Most RV pilots use full up elevator at at least some portion of a landing, and down elevator travel can have an influence on spin recovery, so meeting the minimums (for elevator travel at least) should be considered important.

I am pretty sure the plans cover details on removing material from the contact points (that is what acts as the elevator travel stops) on the fuselage to adjust elevator travel.
 
I am pretty sure the plans cover details on removing material from the contact points (that is what acts as the elevator travel stops) on the fuselage to adjust elevator travel.

Yep, made me remember that we also had to trim some material to get it perfect.
 
Recently attached my elevators

My down travel was 24.8 degrees from the get go, so no adjustment made there. My up elevator travel was about 5 degrees less than the max 30degrees so I had to file the stop, which I did until I achieved 29.8 degrees up elevator. Was not hard to do, just a little tedious as I kept checking frequently.
 
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