Back again after spending a few days in Australia. Even got a bit of
flying in courtesy of Peter Stuy - thanks Peter.
A couple of the Australian builders (and an aircraft engineer) have
redesigned the mass balance and control rodding for the tailplane. They
felt that the factory modification to reduce the length of the tailplane
bell crank (cutting back and redrilling) would increase the stress on the
bellcrank and induce early failure. Instead of reducing the bellcrank
length to change the amount of tailplane motion they increased the length
of the original and had a new fork assembly and forward crank assembly
(the bit that sits behind the rear bulkhead) manufactured. The new setup
works with the same level of control as on the official Europa
modification but with considerably less stress on the rear bellcrank.
The main comment was that the official factory mod was designed with
economics in mind (imagine the cost of sending 100+ completely rebuilt
assemblies) rather than durability of the part in mind.
I must say that, having seen the Australian designed assembly and
comparing it to the factory modification, it does make a lot of sense.
Anyone want to comment?
Tony
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Tony S Krzyzewski Kaon Technologies Ltd
Reply to tonyk@kaon.co.nz L7, 19 Victoria St West
Date: 26/03/96 Auckland, New Zealand
Time: 09:37:17 Ph +64 9 358 9124
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