Pedal tensioning springs?

captainron · Post by **captainron** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 2:35 pm

Has anyone else tried anything like this to keep forward tension on the pedals, and stop the rudder from flapping around on the ground?

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Post by **Spike** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 7:49 pm

Well now that is nifty. I wonder how it effects the feel during flight. I have not seen that before but it sure looks like a slick idea.

painless · Post by **painless** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:24 am

That is pretty slick. I doubt that it would affect use of the rudder in flight.

I still say, however, that a hole in a rudder stop and another in the rudder horn with a "U" shaped piece of 3/16 music wire inserted into them is a much easier method. Connect a red ribbon to the wire for visibility on preflight and you are all set.

Different strokes for different folks.

captainron · Post by **captainron** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:50 am

The idea was just to keep the same forward pressure on both pedals all the time to keep the slack out of the cables. Kind of like just resting your feet on the pedals during turbulence. I've seen where others just attach simple coil springs from the lower part of the pedals to the a point near the firewall, but who wants to do it the easy way when you can make a project out of it?
Here's a shot of the other side. there are tiny nylon rollers inside the little brackets for the spring ends to roll on. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

This shot was taken with the aid of a mirror

captainron · Post by **captainron** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:57 am

I've thought about designing an adjustable biasing system to increase/decrease tension on one or both sides during flight to act as rudder trim, but that could end up getting complicated.

Jeff, do you have any pictures of what you're using?

painless · Post by **painless** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 1:29 pm

[img][img]http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/1408/media1ui3.th.jpg[/img]

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Ron:

This is a shot of my gust lock. Nothing fancy, but easy to do.