AMF 14H MARANDA SN:1026 Making Sawdust November 9, 2015
Well, it has been a very busy weekend. Actually the whole week was busy, but I did get a bit done on the plane. The quick overview is that I got the aileron control cables connected to the control torque tube. Things are mostly working, but the cable mounting brackets that I made will need to be replaced with new ones. So, on to the full description and pictures.
The first thing to do was to get the proper access to the torque tube control horn and attach the cables. This was all done from inside the cabin. I used a Forstner bit to drill a 1″ hole at each end and then used my little pull saw to connect the new holes to the existing hole. I finished it off using my Dremel tool to smooth the edges.
Just having the ends of the cables attached did not result in the ailerons working correctly. What I needed to do was to make some mounting brackets to secure the outer sheaths of the cables. My first pass at this was to use a couple of pieces of 2″ aluminum angle with appropriate holes drilled in them. I mounted the brackets to the main cabin frame with two AN3 bolts. The hole for the cables is 5/8″.
The cables come from the wing roots behind the seat back and down to the torque tube. Now that the cables are in place, I guess I could have gotten by with cables that are 6″ shorter and saved a couple of dollars. However, what I have should work just fine.
The next step was to put the stick in neutral and see how things look.
The cables are about even and there is plenty of adjustment available.
However, there is a significant amount of “aileron droop” that will need to be eliminated. My understanding is that some aileron droop is a good thing, but I think this is a bit much. So I checked things out and found that the adjustment can be made by moving the mount point for the cables up by about 1/2″. However, what that means is that I will need to make new mounting brackets for the cable ends.
Well, back to the shop to cut, bend and weld some steel.