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As long as the engine and boot are off of the 41, I decided to pull the "H" and rudder pedals, all the pulleys in the nose and check all the cables really well. It was also a great excuse to pull the floorboards and make sure everything was clean under there (it wasn't, not by a LOOONG shot).
What I found was a lot of little things that probably wouldn't actually kill me, but were just not right, like someone in the past had actually slathered the pulleys in grease, there was a HARDWARE STORE full of fasteners and junk under the floorboards, the brass shims were missing from the rudder pedals and the rudder return springs were rusty.
The BIG deal, (the one that COULD kill me) was the fuel lines from the tank through the firewall were old, bad shape and had some plumbing fittings. The fuel cut off didn't even actually work! After fixing all the silly and scary problems I have run into a brick wall on those rudder return springs.
The ones on the plane are ~5" long, the O.D. is 5/16" and the wire thickness is between .035 and.040" (hard to measure with the rust). Is that the correct size? Does anyone know where you can get these springs? I have seen a few planes with screen door springs and everybody should take a look to be sure they DO NOT have heavier springs! If a spring or rudder cable were to break and the spring was stronger than the air loads on the rudder the spring would pull the pedal all the way down on the other side and there would be no way to bring it back up.
The "T" is a nice rudder plane, but imagine trying to fly one with the rudder full deflected! Those springs are SUPPOSED to be weak so air loads will be able to keep the rudder at least minimally deflected if a rudder cable fails.
Back to my immediate problem, anybody know who sells the springs?
Hank
I would NOT fly if you find your plane has bigger springs behind the pedals. It's pretty easy to inspect for, but not very comfortable. Might want to check that fuel shut off too to see if it actually works!
What I found was a lot of little things that probably wouldn't actually kill me, but were just not right, like someone in the past had actually slathered the pulleys in grease, there was a HARDWARE STORE full of fasteners and junk under the floorboards, the brass shims were missing from the rudder pedals and the rudder return springs were rusty.
The BIG deal, (the one that COULD kill me) was the fuel lines from the tank through the firewall were old, bad shape and had some plumbing fittings. The fuel cut off didn't even actually work! After fixing all the silly and scary problems I have run into a brick wall on those rudder return springs.
The ones on the plane are ~5" long, the O.D. is 5/16" and the wire thickness is between .035 and.040" (hard to measure with the rust). Is that the correct size? Does anyone know where you can get these springs? I have seen a few planes with screen door springs and everybody should take a look to be sure they DO NOT have heavier springs! If a spring or rudder cable were to break and the spring was stronger than the air loads on the rudder the spring would pull the pedal all the way down on the other side and there would be no way to bring it back up.
The "T" is a nice rudder plane, but imagine trying to fly one with the rudder full deflected! Those springs are SUPPOSED to be weak so air loads will be able to keep the rudder at least minimally deflected if a rudder cable fails.Back to my immediate problem, anybody know who sells the springs?
Hank
I would NOT fly if you find your plane has bigger springs behind the pedals. It's pretty easy to inspect for, but not very comfortable. Might want to check that fuel shut off too to see if it actually works!
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