Bill Boyd
Well Known Member
My 10 has had a heavy right wing since first flight. I've countered it with left roll trim as needed and trying to burn the right tank off first. Since it sometimes required all the left roll trim available with the factory spring trim setup, I decided to add a trim tab wedge under the left aileron to reduce the trim requirement. This served well on the test flight I made last week - neutral roll trim was right where I needed it to be.
This morning on takeoff for a cross country with the wife and a suitcase, the AoA started b*tching at us with "Angle, Angle - Push!" during climb out. I am accustomed to hearing this briefly in ground effect when I rotate at 60kts, but once reaching about 80 it stops alerting in a normal departure climb profile (I have mountains dead ahead of my home runway so max performance climbs or S-turns are expected with most take-offs if I'm not solo). Some time during the "what the heck is this thing squawking about - I'm at 100 KIAS with a normal-looking deck angle and it's showing one red chevron and saying I'm about to stall into a mountainside - not comforting..." I noticed as well that the plane was pulling very hard to the right. I circled back to the airstrip to land and sort things out and then saw the trim tab hanging off the TE of the aileron. I had attached it (tapered maple wedge) with aluminum HVAC tape fore and aft, and apparently the forward strip of tape had let go and the wedge was hanging on by the aft tape. It produced a pronounced downward force on the aileron in this configuration, exacerbating the heavy right wing.
During the left 270 to final, the AoA continued to chant and show just a couple of red chevrons most of the way to the threshold despite a normal looking descent profile and adequate airspeed on final (80 bleeding off to 65 over the numbers). I hopped out, tore off the trim tab, and re-launched. The AoA fussed a little bit but not as excessively as before, and began to indicate as expected during the cruise-climb phase. It also indicated as-expected when we flew the pattern at our destination airport.
I'm a little weirded out by this combination of occurrences and will examine the pitot tube closely when I get back to the field tomorrow for the return leg. The aileron trim wedge clearly needs permanent attachment now that I know it's the right size - I'll seal it with varnish and attach with E6000. The idea that I was somehow mushing along in a near-departure-stall needs further investigation and I intend to do that.
Full disclosure: I washed the plane last evening with a hose and wash mitt - nothing out of my normal routine but I suppose water in the static line or in the pitot is a possibility. Static tubing was routed with no inadvertent P-traps to collect water so I am discounting this possibility for now. Will check for bugs/nests carefully tomorrow before departure. I'd appreciate any thoughts from the hive in the mean time.
This morning on takeoff for a cross country with the wife and a suitcase, the AoA started b*tching at us with "Angle, Angle - Push!" during climb out. I am accustomed to hearing this briefly in ground effect when I rotate at 60kts, but once reaching about 80 it stops alerting in a normal departure climb profile (I have mountains dead ahead of my home runway so max performance climbs or S-turns are expected with most take-offs if I'm not solo). Some time during the "what the heck is this thing squawking about - I'm at 100 KIAS with a normal-looking deck angle and it's showing one red chevron and saying I'm about to stall into a mountainside - not comforting..." I noticed as well that the plane was pulling very hard to the right. I circled back to the airstrip to land and sort things out and then saw the trim tab hanging off the TE of the aileron. I had attached it (tapered maple wedge) with aluminum HVAC tape fore and aft, and apparently the forward strip of tape had let go and the wedge was hanging on by the aft tape. It produced a pronounced downward force on the aileron in this configuration, exacerbating the heavy right wing.
During the left 270 to final, the AoA continued to chant and show just a couple of red chevrons most of the way to the threshold despite a normal looking descent profile and adequate airspeed on final (80 bleeding off to 65 over the numbers). I hopped out, tore off the trim tab, and re-launched. The AoA fussed a little bit but not as excessively as before, and began to indicate as expected during the cruise-climb phase. It also indicated as-expected when we flew the pattern at our destination airport.
I'm a little weirded out by this combination of occurrences and will examine the pitot tube closely when I get back to the field tomorrow for the return leg. The aileron trim wedge clearly needs permanent attachment now that I know it's the right size - I'll seal it with varnish and attach with E6000. The idea that I was somehow mushing along in a near-departure-stall needs further investigation and I intend to do that.
Full disclosure: I washed the plane last evening with a hose and wash mitt - nothing out of my normal routine but I suppose water in the static line or in the pitot is a possibility. Static tubing was routed with no inadvertent P-traps to collect water so I am discounting this possibility for now. Will check for bugs/nests carefully tomorrow before departure. I'd appreciate any thoughts from the hive in the mean time.
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