REFLECTOR: Pitch Trim Mystery

[John Dibble]

Just about all I could maintain during the 1-2 minutes it took to land.

John Tvedte wrote:

> John,
>
> Curious - what amount of force would you say was required......
>
> John T.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
> Behalf Of John Dibble
> Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 10:46 AM
> To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
> Subject: REFLECTOR: Pitch Trim Mystery
>
> Seems like when the Reflector has a what-if discussion, soon after
> someone has to go out and experience it.  I guess the pitch trim failure
> had my name on it.  Last night I flew 1.7 hrs at 180 kn with the pitch
> trim pegged at down trim.  I cut power just enough to descend at 500 fpm
> and kept the trim pegged.  At 5 miles out I slowed to get set up for
> landing and noticed the pitch up trim wasn't working.  Fortunately I've
> flown at night enough, so that that didn't add much to the problem.  I
> had a 5000 ft runway and a direct 10kn headwind which was a good thing.
> Didn't know how long my arm would hold out so I took the fastest way in
> and kept my speed up to 90kn.  Wasn't sure if I could hold it off at 70.
> The landing was a little rough, but I've done worse.
> Today I checked it out and the trim is working fine.  Can anyone tell me
> what happened?  I have fuses and no CBs so it wasn't that.
>
> John
>
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