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My right Aileron is up in level flight

design4p

Active Member
Hi,

In my RV14A quick built wings and quick built fuselage my right Aileron is up in level flight 1/4 inch above the right flap and my ball is slightly right of centre.

I do have the Van's aileron trim system fitted.

Any suggestions to correct or comments would be appreciated.

John
 
FIrst, is the left aileron down a 1/4" from the flap? Ailerons always find a neutral position. If it is not, the issue could be the flaps not both at a true -3. If it is, you may have a heavy wing and need to correct, likely with hinge slotting. Can't really provide more guidance on rigging beyond do some searching here and start over.

I can tell you that with the 10/14 wing it is possible that tightness prevents the flap from reaching the true -3 location without significant force. You are told to push the flap up untill it hits the spar, but you can't see where it touches. In my case, one flap seemed to be hitting the spar, but in reality, the skin overhang was tight in that area and it wasn't trully hitting the spar. I had to bend and tweak the skin overhang some and file a couple areas to get it to smoothly go all the way to the spar. I found this before 1st flight, but shouldn't be hard to address at your point. Remove the flap attach bars and investigate.

In the 10, all the rigging starts with the flaps at -3, so having them hard against the spar is critical. But I think the 14 may have different tooling to set up rigging. Can't help there.

Larry
 
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my right Aileron is up in level flight 1/4 inch above the right flap

And don’t forget, if you are flying solo with equal tanks, your weight loading is biased to the pilot side (likely left) requiring a bit of right stick trim and up right aileron. It’s enough in my 14 to notice.
 
Put some rudder in to correct the ball, and see where your aileron is then. You might need a wedge on the rudder to trim it out.
 
Put some rudder in to correct the ball, and see where your aileron is then. You might need a wedge on the rudder to trim it out.

Seconded…..first thing to is another test flight. Aileron will compensate for yaw…get ya ball in the middle….look at the ailerons then….
 
Hi,

Good idea - next flight I will attach a rudder trim to get the ball centred. Then consider the aileron concern.

John
 
while having the ball out will cause a bit of Aileron deflection, 1/4" seems excessive for either that or weight distribution. You also didn't answer the question about the left aileron being down a 1/4". If it is, the above may be the answer, along with other possibilities. If it isn't, it is likely poor flap symmetry, assuming you are using the flaps as the reference.

Larry
 
In addition to all the good comments and suggestion above, when you rigged the aileron, did you pay attention to the position of the elevator? Elevator deflection has some input to the aileron.

Also, check to see if there is any twist in your flaps, this is especially if you used those as a guide to setup your aileron.
 
Hi,

Thank you for the comments - a number of things to check and try.

The left aileron and left flap are inline whilst the right aileron is above the right flap (about 5mm).

Regards John
 
If as Jonny suggested the ball is in the centre and you’re still rolling left with no stick input, it would suggest the right flap isn’t coming up as far as the left flap if you need right stick to correct it? Certainly agree with the flap asymmetry comments. Good luck!
 
Hi,

Thank you for the comments - a number of things to check and try.

The left aileron and left flap are inline whilst the right aileron is above the right flap (about 5mm).

Regards John

That implies an issue with the flaps. Read my post above and start by insuring the flaps are hard against the spar in the up position. Best to re-read the plans for doing this. This is not happening because the ball is out, though suggest you address that as well. Once both flaps are adjusted correctly, then verify during flight that both ailerons are either aligned wth the flaps in level flight OR an equal distance up and down from the flaps.
Larry
 
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both ailerons are either aligned wth the flaps in level flight OR an equal distance up and down from the flaps.
Larry

Of course you want them even. If they are both a bit high or low, that can happen if they were rigged when the elevator was not clamped neutral - as suggested earlier.
 
I had the same issue with my right aileron slightly up during solo cruise flight.

Here’s what I eventually figured out:

1. Always fly with someone of near equal weight in the right seat, or

2. Lose a bunch of weight.

I’ve chosen to either fly with overweight people like myself or add sufficient trim to compensate which gives me a slightly high right aileron. Dieting is needed but not welcomed!

The plastic wedge suggestion to center your ball is a good solution but will take some flight testing to determine how much and where on the rudder to place it.
 
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