I'm up to another case of looking for someone who has been in a similar "been
there
done that" situation. I am in the process of putting in the bulkhead and
stops for the tail plane mass balance. During the first iteration, (setup as
described in the manual), things did not pan out as expected (typical). The end
result was that the aircraft nose down travel (balance up) exceeded limits of
bulkheads.
The second iteration involved getting rid of the big fat wooden dowel and
rubber
hose stop (1.5" dia) and replacing them with a UHMW type material stop around
the cross bolt with a dia of .5" to get the mass weight down lower to start
with. At this point the weight stops about 1.2" above the tailplane push tube
in its lowered position. The end result was that it looked close, though the
next step was to get technical and actually lay the top of the aircraft on the
whole mess before continuing.
With the top on, the weight smacks the top of the fuselage being a little over
a degree short of the minimum amount required of nose down travel. Granted only
5 degrees is called for but I am short over 20%. I see my direction now as
doing some creative machining of the steel weights when it comes time for metal
removal and balancing to get clearances. Or to do some beefing up of the lower
stop to allow the weight to get even closer to the tube at its bottom travel.
Any "out of the box" insights would be much appreciated.
Steve Hagar
A143
Mesa, AZ
--- Steve Hagar
--- hagargs@earthlink.net
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