One of the Val’s and my little secrets is that she has always had a slightly heavy left wing. It has never been a big deal, since it is easily handled with the electric aileron trim, but nevertheless, it’s just something we don’t talk about. You see, during Phase 1, the left wing heaviness was much more pronounced – enough so that I decided to fix it by squeezing the right aileron using the recommended techniques and tools – a hand seamer. Well, I taped up the jaws and worked my way down the aileron, and made the plane much more balanced – but when I looked down the trailing edge in the right light, I could see little dimples every five inches or so – the width of the jaws. Disgusted, I quit before I did any more damage, sent her off to the paint shop, and lived with the residual slight imbalance. Every time I saw that aileron in the right light, it reminded me…..
Well, tonight I found myself sitting on a stool in the hangar, “laying eyes” on the -3 project, trying to figure out what comes next. I was fiddling with a couple of three foot lengths of .063 angle stock, and for some reason, got to thinking about the Val’s ailerons. Instantly seeing what I had been missing for years, I grabbed a handful of C-clamps, taped the angles up to pad them and give them a little grip, and set them up on the trailing edge of the right aileron. When everything was snug, I gave every C-clamp a full turn. I removed it all, centered the aileron trim, and took a turn around the patch – and she flew hand’s off, wings level – at any speed - for the first time! I even noticed that the trailing edge dimples from the original hand seamer were much less noticeable.
So….if you are going to go about squeezing your ailerons, you might consider leaving the hand seamer in the drawer and pulling out some long flat pieces of angle and a bunch of clamps – it looks to me to be a much easier way to do a far better job!
Paul
Well, tonight I found myself sitting on a stool in the hangar, “laying eyes” on the -3 project, trying to figure out what comes next. I was fiddling with a couple of three foot lengths of .063 angle stock, and for some reason, got to thinking about the Val’s ailerons. Instantly seeing what I had been missing for years, I grabbed a handful of C-clamps, taped the angles up to pad them and give them a little grip, and set them up on the trailing edge of the right aileron. When everything was snug, I gave every C-clamp a full turn. I removed it all, centered the aileron trim, and took a turn around the patch – and she flew hand’s off, wings level – at any speed - for the first time! I even noticed that the trailing edge dimples from the original hand seamer were much less noticeable.
So….if you are going to go about squeezing your ailerons, you might consider leaving the hand seamer in the drawer and pulling out some long flat pieces of angle and a bunch of clamps – it looks to me to be a much easier way to do a far better job!
Paul
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