Flap board ?

[FredG]

One of mine spun.  I have a firewall blanket, too.  I had to cut a slit and gain access to the rivnut and then grab it with pliers.  It was awkward, but it can be done.  I never replaced the spun rivnut (it pulled out of its hole), too difficult, and made the replacement mount in the photo, above.  Put aluminum tape over the slit.

[Madhatter]

On 1/23/2024 at 5:53 PM, Anticept said:

Fred I probably have 20,000 landings on my aircraft and that's a conservative number. It was used as a trainer.

The current actuator pisses me off because it was a replacement after the last one failed, but also after I pulled it out of being a trainer.

I have replaced probably 3 over the lifespan of this aircraft, untold numbers of lubrications, and several more on others.

They motors are pieces of dogshit. Forgive my french but that's always the part that fails. The rest of the actuator always looks to be in fantastic condition and never had issues with it. It's always the motor.

The manufacturer of this actuator is well known in Germany, according to a friend over there who works in industrial controls. When I sent him pictures he IDed them right away and said the motors specifically are chinese imports but he doesn't know the model, it would like looking for a specific needle in a needle stack.

As for ordering replacements from the manufacturer, they refuse to do business with end users.

As for re-engineering the flap system: I like modding things to make them last and last. If that's not possible or prohibitively expensive, then I want them to be easily serviceable with parts that have prices that reflect their value. I am sick and tired of cheap, shitty parts being used in everything (especially some light sport aircraft) and you will find a lot of things I own are custom built or customized for minimal maintenance and long lasting.

You are 100% correct, there is a lot of junk components in LSA aircraft.  The CT has  lot to be desired in this area especially with the electrical. There are cheap spade connectors everywhere and the circuit breaker setup is horrible and backwards on some flow patterns. My car is way better. I ripped a lot of it out and replaced a lot with certified components. Spade  and bullet connectors are a source of unwanted resistance over time. I get it that most can't do this because of labor costs but fortunately I've been doing this for a long time on certified so I had minimal cost involved. The first sign of a flap issue, it's coming out, I'm not going to waste time on fixing junk because you still have junk in the end. Eventually as these aircraft get older more and more of these issues are going to come up. It sounds like the flap system is going to be a weak point as it is showing up a lot lately.