REFLECTOR: Aileron Bearing Bracket - Older Design - Inspection Recommendation

[Gary Ciampa]

All,
 
I was performing a routine inspection on my flight control systems (V173FG, circa 1995) and found a fracture in my aileron bearing bracket. There's a second velocity on the field (XL-RG) which has a similar problem. Folks may want to inspect the bearing bracket at their first opportunity. 
 
In both cases, the fracture was discovered on the aileron bearing bracket, at the 90 degree bend in the bracket. In the second case, the crack extended into the center of the aileron bearing bracket, where the bearing is secured.
 
You will find the assembly instructions in Chapter 10, Section 3, Figure 10-12, of the Builders Construction Manual. 
 
In our cases, we have an older design for holding the aileron cable to the "cable bracket" fixture. The "cable bracket" is secured to an aluminum extension that bolts directly to the aileron bearing bracket. You will notice as the aileron cable moves back and forth, the aluminum extension will flex laterally. We suspect that the combination of flex in the cable bracket fixture and normal vibration caused the crack in the aileron bearing bracket. 
 
NOTE: The online construction manual has a newer design for the cable bracket fixture, Figure 10-12, depicting securing the fixture to the wing root. If you look closely at Figure 10-11, you will observe that the diagram depicts the former design. 
 
NOTE: 2: Figures 10-11 and 10-12 depict the same aileron bearing bracket configuration diagrams for both FG and RG models.
 
I chatted with our friends at Sebastian and they indicated they would communicate this information through normally supported methodologies. 
 
If my description is not quite clear, take a look at the figures, one picture is worth a thousand words. <G> 
 
Cheers,
 
Gary