Ergonomically Friendly Stick

[aparchment]

Hey Guys:

Long time no post. Hope everyone is well.

I need some input on my control stick. I set my cockpit up with the rudder pedals in place, instrument panel in, Classic Aero seats in place and finally the control column and stick grip.

Everything felt great with one exception. With the seat back in position two, which gives me the slight recline I want, the back travel on the stick is a little, how shall we say, ball busting. Now I'm not sure that the back travel I am seeing now will be the same when the control rods and elevator are hooked up, but if it is, there is no way I can get either full back stick pressure or full back stick pressure and crosswind correction without causing some pain. I am worried about running out of elevator and aileron in landing, particularly crosswind landings.

I have plenty of forward room between the stick and the panel, so I was thinking I would put an S bend in the stick with the first bend away from the, ahem, jewel region and the second to bring the stick top back to vertical.

Have any of you done this type of bend? How did you do it?

Antony

P.S. -- I'm referring to it as the ball bend.

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This morning I will take a look to see where the stick ends up when the bottom bar on the control column is vertical. If the stick is far enought forward maybe I don't need a bend.

Maybe I shold just wait and do this when I have the pushrods and elevators mounted.

I'm rambling again . . .

[hydroguy2]

....I'm rambling again . . .

Rambling is allowed...sometimes it's the only way I learn.


I would hold off on the stick bending until all other adjustments have been made.

[Bob Barrett]

I had some of the same concerns on my RV-6A but after 10 hrs none of the three test pilots have complained. Wait until you test fly it! U would worry more about the Stick hitting your instrument panel.

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That's the strange thing Bob. The stick doesn't even come close to the panel. I have to check the geometry again.

Antony

[Bob Barrett]

On my RV-6A I had to cut over an inch of the top of the sticks to keep them from hitting the Instrument Panel. I didn't check that until I had them wired for push to talk switches. I was able to do that but it would have been better done before they were in place and wired!

[aparchment]

I cut several inches off of the stick so that I could put the Infinity grip on top and see how it fit. That's one reason I am not close to the panel.

It appears that the forward throw is inhibited by the two seat bottom ribs that have the removable sections. I will check this on the plans too.

[RV9inIowa]

It is my understanding that the stick throw (in both pitch & roll) is much greater by itself than is possible when the controls are hooked up. I measured my stick angles with nothing connected and it moves at least +/- 30 degrees in each axis. I think that when the elevators and ailerons are hooked up, the control stops will limit the movement to something like +/- 20 degrees. This may prevent the aforementioned spherical damgage problem.

If anyone with a flying 9A would like to help, they could measure and post the maximum stick deflection angles. It would take about 30 seconds with a digital level.

Let me know if I'm wrong, cause I'm hoping that the reduction in possible roll throw will keep my stick from hitting my throttle quadrant.

BTW - do you have to remove the entire assembly from the plane to cut the control stick? I sure hope not, that was a pain to install..

[Spike]

Just measure the throw of the aileron pushrod going through one of the wings and then translate that to the stick mechanism.

Spike