Tad Olmsted Posted October 23, 2011 Report Posted October 23, 2011 The outboard rudder pedals are not supported on the outside extremity. Thus, if a student or newbie to the CT pushes hard on the pedal to steer before the aircraft is rolling, it causes the pedal to bend forward. I have come up with a repair that straightens them out and I install reinforcement with out welding and burning off the chrome finish. Sooner or later all of these outboard pedals are going to bend as time goes by, unless little miss daisy is at the controls This is a great cost saver and it does not take very long. A new pedal is $169.00 plus tax and shipping, I can fix them and you will never have to worry about them again. rudder pedals CTLS.zip
Runtoeat Posted October 24, 2011 Report Posted October 24, 2011 Tad, I've noticed the bent pedal on another CT a while ago. I figured that someone would have really had to stomp on it to bend it but you indicated that it can be bent without much pressure. For the possibility that I might end up with a bent pedal, how hard is it to remove these in order to send to you? Does one have to stand on his/her head and wish they had slightly longer arms in order to unfasten linkage inside the tunnel? BTW, I've flown a Remos GX and one thing I really liked was the ease which I could steer while on the ground. When I first flew the Remos, I thought that it had a castering nose wheel and I was only moving the rudder. Do you know why the CT has to be so hard to steer? Maybe FD could have made the steering ears on the front gear a little longer to get more leverage?
Tad Olmsted Posted October 24, 2011 Author Report Posted October 24, 2011 The remos has a spring set up off the rudder rigging. CT is directly linked to the rudder pedals by rods. Taking them out is a real PITA if you don't have the right tools. Im 6'4 with a 78" wingspan and it's a B$* for me to do it. And it takes 2 people. Reinstallation is even more fun. Not recommended for anything other than a pro shop. If time and bandaids are a commodity of yours, then have at it. LOL
Runtoeat Posted October 25, 2011 Report Posted October 25, 2011 Hi Roger. I just had a feeling that getting a rudder pedal off of the plane to be worked on would be a b*itch. I recall my friend having his rudder stops fixed per a FD service bulletin. Before we took it to the shop, we looked into the tunnel to figure out what it took to do this. We both quickly came to the same conclusion that this would not be a job for anyone but an experienced FD repair person. I believe your comment is correct about trainer CT's having the pedals bent. The only CT I've seen with bent rudder pedals was a year old CTLS that was being used as a trainer. As you point out, I always make sure I'm rolling when I use the rudder pedals. I also note that even when rolling, if the brakes are being used while also trying to turn the plane it becomes very hard to push the pedals due to the non-differential brakes preventing the plane from wanting to turn. So, I make sure I'm rolling and that I'm not applying the brakes when turning.
GravityKnight Posted July 1, 2013 Report Posted July 1, 2013 The place where I trained has an SW and an LS. Someone mongoloid-ed the rudders and bent the outboard pedal pretty bad on the LS! I complained for 2 months about it, and so did some other people... never got fixed to my knowledge. Was actually scary, in a bad right crosswind I found there was just enough left rudder input to land safely (couldn't push it any further because of it being bent, not an actual rudder authority problem).... I fly the SW now instead... They need this fix, but they don't care enough to really look at it anyway...
ralarcon Posted July 1, 2013 Report Posted July 1, 2013 I believe you are fixing mine right now. Cheers.
FlyingMonkey Posted July 1, 2013 Report Posted July 1, 2013 Tad, assuming you have the plane sitting at your shop, how much would you charge to disassemble, fix, and re-assemble? Just curious for future reference.
Flying Bozo Posted July 1, 2013 Report Posted July 1, 2013 One reason for the extremely hard steering is the lack of grease on the surfaces. When you grease the fork with the grease fitting the grease gets in there but never all the way around since the fork is not a rotating shaft only turning about 30 degrees. Mine was removed and I was shocked to see that most of the surfaces on the fork and the housing were dry of any lubricant. I think the fork should be removed at intervals and hand greased. Now my CTSW steers much easier and I am not afraid that I will break something every time I make a turn. Larry
Ed Cesnalis Posted October 5, 2013 Report Posted October 5, 2013 Jeremy lubed my nose fork yesterday, the amount of pressure required to steer had become significant. I have to assume that on my recent condition inspections that this item has been skipped. It again takes only light pressure to steer. Control on rollout is easier too, I am no long focusing on the surprise when my nose wheel settles.
Ed Cesnalis Posted October 5, 2013 Report Posted October 5, 2013 I never 'needed' to do full stall landings, I just do them to minimize my speed, probably the reason my 7 year old brakes are still like new.
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