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What if a flaperon weld broke?

100fathomline

I'm New Here
Has anyone considered what would happen if, on a RV-12, the weld broke which connects the torque tube to a flaperon. With just a small area of weld, it?s always been a worry to me and is closely inspected before each flight.

In thinking about it, at a high enough speed, the loose flaperon might stream inline with the wing and movement up and down of the operating flaperon might provide sufficient flight control for a high speed landing. Thoughts anyone?
Gary in Tucson
 
I've been wondering the same thing actually..

One of two things would happen .. it would either find its own happy position for the amount of air flowing around the wing and the AOA.. or it will flap around like a loose fish on a boat.

My guess is that it would have the same behavior as if you were flying and took your hand off the stick. You'd still have control over the other aileron and I guess have only half of the roll authority as normal. So things may get a little dicey as you flare or in gusty crosswinds.
 
My guess is the flaperon with the broken weld would probably trail in the slip stream. The problem would be with the other wing with the "working" flaperon. Here would have drag from the working control surface not countered by the opposite wing. Some degree of adverse yaw would be present and would be difficult to deal with...
 
Another idea to satisfy your curiosity? fly a radio-control low-wing airplane that has individual servos controlling the ailerons. Program a switch on your transmitter so you can shut off one aileron servo in flight. In level flight, with normal power, shut off one aileron servo and see what happens. Won?t be pretty.
 
What if a flaperon weld failed?

Has anyone considered what would happen if, on a RV-12, the weld broke which connects the torque tube to a flaperon. With just a small area of weld, it?s always been a worry to me and is closely inspected before each flight.

In thinking about it, at a high enough speed, the loose flaperon might stream inline with the wing and movement up and down of the operating flaperon might provide sufficient flight control for a high speed landing. Thoughts anyone?
Gary in Tucson

Gary, I hope you do not have the missing welds as referenced in "Service Alert RV-12 (3-17-11) which indicated some flaperon torque arms were tack welded only. Please check for the indicated full welds, not tack welds!
Norm
 
I recently performed a Tech Inspection on a -12 and realized that the builder did not treat that bell crank before installing it.

Apparently the plans don't mention it needs to be painted before installation.

If any of you find an untreated bell crank in your plane, remove any surface rust you find and paint it. A paint brush will work.
 
I recently performed a Tech Inspection on a -12 and realized that the builder did not treat that bell crank before installing it.

Apparently the plans don't mention it needs to be painted before installation

Bill is referring to the WD-01224 FLAP CRANK assembly installation on KAI page 32iS/U-08.
 
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