I was just wondering how many have experienced heavy right wings? I have put the "squeeze" on the left aileron trailing edge but the problem persists. Has anyone had luck with increasing the radius on the heavy side aileron with any luck? I read what the manual says, but found it a bit vague. I really don't want to squeeze the left aileron any tighter. Thanks in advance.
Van's Air Force
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Heavy RV-12 Right Wing
- Thread starter Dave12
- Start date
Hey Dave - -
Mine turned left sharply, and was 1/2 ball out, or more. I pinched the right side and did too many of the 'panels'. I needed to be more patient. I then had it turning slight right. I pinched the left 1 or 2 outside panels, and now have it so with just me, it slightly turns left. With 2 people, it turns slightly right. Figure that is as good as I will get. The ball moved back to the center. Have not touched it since. Takes a noticeable amount of pinching to make a difference.
John Bender
Mine turned left sharply, and was 1/2 ball out, or more. I pinched the right side and did too many of the 'panels'. I needed to be more patient. I then had it turning slight right. I pinched the left 1 or 2 outside panels, and now have it so with just me, it slightly turns left. With 2 people, it turns slightly right. Figure that is as good as I will get. The ball moved back to the center. Have not touched it since. Takes a noticeable amount of pinching to make a difference.
John Bender
Rv-12 "heavy wing"
My builder had constructed the flaperons to be even L & R. When I flew it for the 1st time I definitely noticed the pull to the right when placing the flap lever in the 1st position and the pull continued at the full flap position. Well, going back to the construction plans it calls for the right flaperon to droop about a 1/4" when the left flaperon is evenly aligned with the left wing. Adjusting the push rods to achieve this noticeably reduced the effect of the heavy right wing.
My builder had constructed the flaperons to be even L & R. When I flew it for the 1st time I definitely noticed the pull to the right when placing the flap lever in the 1st position and the pull continued at the full flap position. Well, going back to the construction plans it calls for the right flaperon to droop about a 1/4" when the left flaperon is evenly aligned with the left wing. Adjusting the push rods to achieve this noticeably reduced the effect of the heavy right wing.
Heavy right wing
Dave:
I had the same problem. Regarding rigging and the comment by vette-guy, in reality, both flaperons droop when the stick is in the neutral position. They just have you neutralize the left and set the right to 1/4 inch because it is much easier to do that than try and measure 1/8 inch droop on both sides.
You either squeeze the light wing and/or blunt the heavy one. I had a heavy right wing and the problem persisted, even after extensive squeezing of the left flaperon. In fact, we got to a point where we did not want to squeeze the trailing edge any more. We blunted the right flaperon a bit but were still unable to completely resolve the heaviness. At this point, I contacted Van's and they just suggested adding a trim wedge to one flaperon (which I did on the bottom of the left one). I hated to have to do this but the squeezing, if done too much, can become quite noticeable. The trim wedge largely resolved the problem although with full flap extension and slow speeds, I do get a bit of left wing heaviness now. However, it is basically good at cruise.
Given that everything is pre-punched and built without jigs, I still remain a bit puzzled as to why some seem to have little trouble with this and others like myself have bigger problems. Seems like having a ball out to the right and needing a rudder trim tab is pretty common and probably expected to some extent given the p factor. However, the wing heaviness seems to vary considerably between builders.
Jeff
Dave:
I had the same problem. Regarding rigging and the comment by vette-guy, in reality, both flaperons droop when the stick is in the neutral position. They just have you neutralize the left and set the right to 1/4 inch because it is much easier to do that than try and measure 1/8 inch droop on both sides.
You either squeeze the light wing and/or blunt the heavy one. I had a heavy right wing and the problem persisted, even after extensive squeezing of the left flaperon. In fact, we got to a point where we did not want to squeeze the trailing edge any more. We blunted the right flaperon a bit but were still unable to completely resolve the heaviness. At this point, I contacted Van's and they just suggested adding a trim wedge to one flaperon (which I did on the bottom of the left one). I hated to have to do this but the squeezing, if done too much, can become quite noticeable. The trim wedge largely resolved the problem although with full flap extension and slow speeds, I do get a bit of left wing heaviness now. However, it is basically good at cruise.
Given that everything is pre-punched and built without jigs, I still remain a bit puzzled as to why some seem to have little trouble with this and others like myself have bigger problems. Seems like having a ball out to the right and needing a rudder trim tab is pretty common and probably expected to some extent given the p factor. However, the wing heaviness seems to vary considerably between builders.
Jeff
I think that anything built in a jig will be more consistently accurate. The pre-punch is a compromise. And a good one for most of the builders.
If you are still not amazed at this kit, then just ask Mel what it took to build his kit.................
I too am puzzled by this and would love to hear more opinions on this.
Thanks Jeff, could you tell me the location on the aileron you installed the wedge, how big the wedge is and where you purchased it? My rudder is a 1/2 to 3/4 ball right but gets much closer at cruise of course. The rudder does not bother me near as much as the aileron. The rudder is actually acceptable as is. Also, could you share with me your static prop rpm? Thanks again.
iain donnelly
Member
right wing heavy
Dave, I had heavy right wing and played about squeezing the light wing and after several flights decided to squeeze the wing tip trailing edge slightly with good results I also found that at full load heavy crew in right seat full fuel and 50lb sand for baggage did not increase the heavy wing problem.
Dave, I had heavy right wing and played about squeezing the light wing and after several flights decided to squeeze the wing tip trailing edge slightly with good results I also found that at full load heavy crew in right seat full fuel and 50lb sand for baggage did not increase the heavy wing problem.
Ex Bonanza Bucko
Well Known Member
I have an S-LSA purchased from Vans and it has a heavy right wing. I agree that the docs Vans has sent us on how to correct that are vague -- they do not work.
Talking with other Van owners I found that this is pretty common with a lot of Van's models. One RV8 guy had the problem and he taped a small dowel to the left wing and the problem was fixed.
I did not want fly and airplane with a piece of wood duct taped to the aileron so I asked Van"s about putting a trim tab on there. They said that would be OK...on my S-LSA you need the builder's permission to change anything. I have not put on a trim tab yet but I have experimented with other means of fixing this. I now have a narrow length of velcro attached to the bottom of the left aileron at the trailing edge on the outboard end of the aileron. The velcro is about 15 inches long.
This fixed the problem....go figure!
EBB
Talking with other Van owners I found that this is pretty common with a lot of Van's models. One RV8 guy had the problem and he taped a small dowel to the left wing and the problem was fixed.
I did not want fly and airplane with a piece of wood duct taped to the aileron so I asked Van"s about putting a trim tab on there. They said that would be OK...on my S-LSA you need the builder's permission to change anything. I have not put on a trim tab yet but I have experimented with other means of fixing this. I now have a narrow length of velcro attached to the bottom of the left aileron at the trailing edge on the outboard end of the aileron. The velcro is about 15 inches long.
This fixed the problem....go figure!
EBB
Here are a couple of more threads about a heavy wing:
Flaperon adjustment
First flight and a question
Flaperon adjustment
First flight and a question
They actually work very well but like anything else, just because a process works well, doesn't mean all people can make it work.
