I have a heavy left wing. I suppose that I am good company I have read quite a few posts here about the issue and did some investigation today. I examined the trailing edges and they are both very similar. Both are just slightly over-bent, according to the picture on the Section 5 document, but are pretty much identical. If anything the right is more over-bent than the left. I put a caliper on the ends and they are very close in size.
I also put a straight edge on on the underside of the wing skin / aileron skin. on the right aileron, the wing and aileron sit on the same plane (straight edge laying across the two surfaces showed no gaps). On the left aileron, the outboard hinge left the surfaces, as above, but the inboard side had the aileron up (solid parallel gap between aileron skin and straight edge). I didn't measure, but would say it was between 1/16" and 1/8". I called Van's to ask if this type of alignment could cause the heavy wing, as all of the posters I searched found and adjusted mis-alignment on the light wing. The Tech didn't know and said less than 1/8" was in spec. Can this cause the heavy wing?
I ended up putting a 2" tapered balsa block on the light aileron and this eliminated most of the heaviness, but not all of it. I will do more testing tomorrow.
What do you guys think as a next step. I am hesitant to further pinch the right trailing edge given that it seems very consistent with the left.
I also noticed that both of my flaps are about a 1/4" higher than the ailerons at cruise speed. The gap is the same on both sides. I noticed on the ground that I can pull up each flap at least a 1/4" from it's resting position (slop in actuating system). On initial setup, I aligned each aileron using the tooling holes and then set the flaps to the ailerons.
I appreciate any guidance that you can provide.
Larry
I also put a straight edge on on the underside of the wing skin / aileron skin. on the right aileron, the wing and aileron sit on the same plane (straight edge laying across the two surfaces showed no gaps). On the left aileron, the outboard hinge left the surfaces, as above, but the inboard side had the aileron up (solid parallel gap between aileron skin and straight edge). I didn't measure, but would say it was between 1/16" and 1/8". I called Van's to ask if this type of alignment could cause the heavy wing, as all of the posters I searched found and adjusted mis-alignment on the light wing. The Tech didn't know and said less than 1/8" was in spec. Can this cause the heavy wing?
I ended up putting a 2" tapered balsa block on the light aileron and this eliminated most of the heaviness, but not all of it. I will do more testing tomorrow.
What do you guys think as a next step. I am hesitant to further pinch the right trailing edge given that it seems very consistent with the left.
I also noticed that both of my flaps are about a 1/4" higher than the ailerons at cruise speed. The gap is the same on both sides. I noticed on the ground that I can pull up each flap at least a 1/4" from it's resting position (slop in actuating system). On initial setup, I aligned each aileron using the tooling holes and then set the flaps to the ailerons.
I appreciate any guidance that you can provide.
Larry