Carlson Skunk Works

November 9th, 2015

AMF 14H MARANDA SN:1026 Making Sawdust November 9, 2015

Posted by Roger in AMF 14H Maranda SN1026, news

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.

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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.

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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″.

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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.

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The next step was to put the stick in neutral and see how things look.

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The cables are about even and there is plenty of adjustment available.

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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.

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