REFLECTOR: Dual Stick Control Installation

[Jones Nick]

Bob,

I have installed the dual side sticks as a retrofit. I followed the instructions loosely as they were not complete yet. I think I got one of the first retrofit side sticks. 

I found out that if you are installing the center console, it makes a great difference to the installation. At first I wasn't going to cut down the keel and just attach to the existing aluminum torque tube that runs through the keel and the forward bearing. But to do this I had to cut the tail off the center console and offset the engine controls to the right as far as possible to clear the torque tube. I could never get the center console from looking like a hack job so I bit the bullet and put the tail back on the center console and cut the keel down, and moved the engine controls to the center. However, I didn't want to have to reverse the aileron bell crank to do a complete XL-5 conversion so I cut the keel down about half of the XL-5 conversion and modified the center console to fit. I had to add a universal joint at the rear of the keel to offset the new angle the torque tube had to make. BTW, if you do cut the keel down, you will want to buy the carbon fiber keel cap from Velocity. I don't know how they can make it for what they are selling it for. If you want more details and pics I can get them when I go to the hangar tonight.


Best regards,

Nick and Connie Jones
Velocity XL-RG
N10CN
99% done 90% to go
-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On Behalf Of Bob Huntingford
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 6:44 PM
To: reflector at tvbf.org
Subject: REFLECTOR: Dual Stick Control Installation

I am trying to install the dual stick controls into my XL-FG which does 
not have the cut down keel. Does anyone have a better set of 
instructions or suggestions on how to put together the controls. I was 
sent the article from Velocity titled "Velocity Side Stick Control 
Installation Guide" but all it has is a couple of small pictures of the 
overall assembly without any part numbers as to what goes where. Any 
clarification would be appreciated. Also I noticed that the instructions 
mentions 5/8" OD aileron torque tubes but the tube that came with my kit 
was 3/4". Needless to say the support bearings don't fit too well.

Bob Huntingford
XL-FG