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Heavy Left Wing

bob888

Well Known Member
I have had a heavy left wing since flight one. This is corrected with a wedge under the right aileron. The question is whether the heavy wing can be corrected by adjusting the length of either of the W1018 bellcrank to aileron pushrods, thus alleviating the need for the wedge. On the ground, both ailerons line up perfectly with the flap 0 degree position but the outboard end of the left aileron is slightly (1/4 inch) below the trailing edge of the wingtip. I suspect the root of the problem is the left wingtip trailing edge too high but that is not readily correctible at this point. Thanks for any advice; this may be a case of the enemy of good being better as the plane is flying just fine with the wedge.
 
I presume you meant that the ailerons line up with the flaps at their -3 deg reflex setting...
The wingtips aren?t too hard to adjust. Slit or cut the aft inboard seam, readjust, coat seam with epoxy, clamp. But first:
Adjust ailerons to neutral. (Elevator too.) Stand in front of the wing. Sight down the top, back half of the wing. Does the sight line flow smoothly onto the leading edge of the aileron? On mine the right wing looked good, but on the left wing the aileron appeared to be vertically high at its leading edge. I slotted the outboard mounting bracket, moved that end of the aileron down 1/16? or less. This fixed my left-wing-heavy issue.
 
I had the same issue as Bob. The leading inboard edge of the left aileron was about a 1/16' high, so I ordered an undrilled inboard hinge and lowered it. This took care of the left wing heavy. you can use a straight edge to determine if you have this condition.
 
Here?s a thought and a question. Is your heavy wing still heavy when you have a passenger in the right seat or only when you?re solo? Mine was generally noticeable when I was solo and not when someone was in the right seat.

I found the wedge to be my optimal solution because it allowed me the best capability to trim it out when weight differences were considered. Just a thought.
 
My initial imbalance was much worse than an unbalanced load condition. I was surprised such a small thing had such a large effect.
 
Couple of quick thoughts -

Twisted aileron. If you rivet the trailing edge starting at one end and continue to the other you will get a twist. You need to random rivet. If the aileron lines up with the flap but not the fibreglass tip then this may be the problem

- OR if the aileron is straight and it still doesn't line up then the tip may be warped. As previously commented, many people have to cut the trailing edge and rework to get everything aligned. Bottom line is that with the flaps hard up against the rear spar (reflex or -3), everything must line up on the trailing edge

Changing the length of pushrods won't help. The aerodynamics will settle the ailerons where they are and all you will change is the neutral position of the stick
 
Does splitting the wingtip trailing edge to make it match the aileron require removing the W1016 tip rib?
 
Does splitting the wingtip trailing edge to make it match the aileron require removing the W1016 tip rib?

Short answer - yes.

As I?ve posted before, fitting wingtips should be deferred until after the wings are on the plane, flaps and ailerons rigged (and rigging checked by serveral sets of eyes). The wingtip trailing edge can move up or down a lot before drilling all the holes and then fitting the tip rib.

Carl
 
Adjusting the trailing edge of the wingtip is fairing easy. It does require drilling out and realigning the rib, however it has very little effect to fix a heavy wing. I had a heavy left wing and fixed it by raising the aileron attach bracket as recommended in Van?s FAQ document. My left wingtip was high and did not align with the aileron in level flight. I thought lowering it might make a difference, but the effect was negligible. I would suggest fixing the heavy wing by adjusting the leading edge of the aileron per Van?s instructions, and then realign the wingtip trailing edge to match the aileron for cosmetics if desired.
 
FWIW below is my experience in addressing a heavy wing in two different instances:

When I was in Phase 1 testing I had a heavy left wing. My aileron was not warped, was aligned with the flap, but not aligned with the wingtip. I split the wingtip and reset it so it aligned with the aileron. This made it look so much better but had zero impact on fixing the heavy wing.

Ultimately the cause was narrowed down to the radius of the right aileron and the problem was cured.

Fast forward a few years latter. I installed an autopilot servo in the right wing. In doing so, I every so slightly increased the the throw of the bell crank which in turn introduced a heavy wing. This was caught on the initial test and easily rectified.
 
Ultimately the cause was narrowed down to the radius of the right aileron and the problem was cured.

I understand that the ailerons are folded on the 2-place models and that the radius at the trailing edge is critical. However, the -10 uses a 2-piece aileron with a riveted trailing edge section so I don't think this will help......
 
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