REFLECTOR: First Flight!

[Ron Brown]

G'morning Gordon,

The ailerons floating 3/8" high while neutral at 140 knots isn't right.

When at rest, the aileron trailing edges should be about 1/8" low.  In flight, my 173's ailerons are neutral at 140 knots.  When neutral, the bottom of the ailerons should be flush and in line with the wing ahead of it.  Nothing (including the nose of the aileron) should be protruding when neutral.

A recent Velocity newsletter also cautioned against having squared off edges on the leading edge of the ailerons - they should be rounded off.  See http://www.velocityaircraft.com/Newsletter%20Files/input.html - Aileron article.

Congratulations!!!

Ronnie
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: cgputney at peoplepc.com 
  To: Reflector - 
  Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2006 9:55 PM
  Subject: REFLECTOR: First Flight!


  After 13 years, our Velocity 173RG top door finally flew. A thorough inspection and then lift off from our airpark by expert pilot and mechanic Steve Murphree was quite exciting. 

  Only heavy ailerons marred an otherwise fine flying machine. The roll forces have been eased somewhat by reducing the radius to the cable attach point at the "keel" bellcrank but still preclude any easy directional control above pattern speed. 

  Question: do all 173 wings have a concave underside at the ailerons? One bit of advice was to fill this modest concavity to reduce these high forces. Has anyone else done this? The roll forces on the Sebastion trainer using apparently the same wing were nothing like mine! The ailerons "float" about 3/8" high at 140 knots, even after converting the aileron torque tubes to steel and carefully removing all lost motion in the roll circuit. The only elements left to deflect under load are the push-pull cable cores under compression. 

  The IO540 performed flawlessly and needed only some idle adjustments, but there is a list of squawks in other areas to work on before the next flights.

  Thanks to all who contributed to this success, knowingly or not. The Reflector remains a rich source of information.

  Gordon Putney



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