by peter » Mon Oct 19, 2009 10:09 am
Hi guys......Here's an interesting thing....I've snapped both the rod ends on the ruddervator horns on my ser. 3.....the first time I broke one, I was pulling the plane back into my tie downs, and the left ruddervator caught a little rise in ground,dug in and snap.....couldn't believe it would break so easy.....I thought it must have been ready to break and was glad it didn't happen in the air....anyway I inspected the whole control system right back to the rudder pedals, and couldn't find any other damage....I thought it for sure must have done damage to the control horn, but no sign of bending or cracking or anything wrong.....well, I replaced the rod end and a few weeks later I forgot to tie the stick back again, and did the same thing to the other side......and again no damage that I could find.......Needles to say, I'm now a little gunshy about backing the plane up.
The point is the rod ends appear to be the weak link in the ruddervator system, mine both broke at the outside of the jam nut without any other apparent damage......This really surprised me because the single control horn certainly looks to be the weak spot in the system.
I certainly think the doubled up control horns is a good mod , and relativley easy to do if for no other reason than piece of mind and good looks.
I'd hate to have a ruddervator fail in flight but my plane flys almost hands off and I feel I would have sufficient elevator remaining to keep control and to land ok.
Just my experience and thoughts...........Peter