Strange rudder

So I could use some speculations here. I'm stumped. I'm still in phase 1. First 15 hours I noticed I don't need a whole lot of rudder in cruise. Just barely put some weight on the pedal and it's good.

First two flights after putting the pants on and I needed a lot of rudder in cruise. Goes faster too. I figured maybe a pant was not aligned well. After two landings (both nice soft touchdowns and 3.5 hrs of flight time) the rudder is back to the way it was before. Just put some weight on the right pedal and the ball centers.

I checked the pants and fairings and they don't move. I checked for unusual things on all the surfaces and they're all clean.

Any ideas?

Well, the possibilities are:
1. Something moved, or
2. Black magic.
I vote for #1.
One possibility: Your nose wheel 'break out force' (to move side to side) was a bit on the high side. Your nose wheel fairing was a bit mis-aligned (it takes very little), requiring extra rudder to counter act in flight. At the same time the high break out force kept the wheel straight (fairing crooked). Now the Bellville washers have relaxed a bit (very common at low hours), and in flight the nose wheel pivots so the fairing is now aligned, you're back to needing little rudder.

I'm sure there are a lot of similar scenarios.

For the record, my -10 needed no rudder with the fairings off. Once the fairings were installed, it needed some (maybe 1/2 ball out of center). I went over and over the fairing alignments, couldn't find the issue. It must be pretty sensitive to small errors.
PS Yes, the speed gain with the fairings is impressive.
PPS Did you follow the instructions, to align the wheel fairings with weight off the wheels (so they're in their "flight" position)?

Nose gear?

Maybe the nose gear is not in trail? Just a thought...

That's got to be it. The nose gear, I mean. That all just makes sense. I'll pay attention if it happens again and see if I can yaw it away or slip or something and see if I can change it.

I suppose magic hasn't been ruled out entirely so we'll see. Thanks for the replys.

And yes. I aligned with the fuse jacked up off the floor.

Almost certainly the nose gear as long as all of the other fairings are tight.

video

I think there was a video of this on this board awhile back. I think it turned out that the breakout force was too little and in flight the nose gear was yawing slightly...

Another possibility is the Leg Fairings. You only put them on when the pants are on, correct?
John

intersection fairing

Actually I think it was the upper right intersection fairing. It's all better now so this is all theory.

The first time I noticed the issue was after a long climb on the first flight after the pants/fairings were installed. Then magically later in the day the problem was gone.

The next flight while doing my pre-flight I found two screws missing from the upper right intersection fairing. My theory is that during the climb the front screw backed out changing things - maybe allowing the leg fairing to shift. Then later in the day the aft screw backed out allowing airflow to be better again.

After reinstalling the screws with some thread-locker I haven't had any issues. It's all back to only needing almost no rudder at cruise.

Joe---I think its just you--GLAD to be flying the plane you built!!
Tom

TS Flightlines said:

Joe---I think its just you--GLAD to be flying the plane you built!!
Tom

Click to expand...

True story. Still a little weird to think I built this in my garage. First rivet driven in 11/2010. Hopeful to be out of phase 1 in 11/2017. A full 7 years.