I just talked with Mike Radomsky who gave me the following news that he wanted me to pass on:
There is a new SB due to come out later today that has to do with the trim cartidges in our planes.
The fixes should take only 3 hours or so to complete. We believe it could fix a potential safety-of-flight problem, so probably worth doing – particularly if your plane is already in the shop right now, it might be worth keeping it there an extra day or two to get this fix applied.
I’m sure Mike will post more details as soon as he gets near a computer!
During two occasions at the Van Nuys CPPP my trim stopped working during air work and landings! In each case it later came back on line. My only thought was flying in high temperatures for long periods during training. Has anyone else encountered a similar problem?
I think this a is simular problem. A while back I lost all my electric trim control.Once on the ground and engine shut off I found the Electric trim motor was running but wasnt moving anything .The motor just whinned.Topgun in Stockton said the shaft to the motor snaped. He also explained to me that they dont exactly use a clutch system to override, its more like a flexable bunggie.
I have also had it happen twice. I cannot repeat it and do not have any idea what’s going on. Both times I had been on autopilot and the trim did not work manually after I disengaged the AP. Once I was far enough out to do a little research and found I could turn the AP back on and have it take over fine, but trim still did not work until I landed and shut down everything. Had a hundred dollar breakfast and when I got back to the plane everything was fine.
I hate electrical gremlins, because they cannot be replicated so have a hard time getting fixed. I had assumed that was the issue, but maybe something else is going on? Were you transitioning off the AP also when it happened? Maybe thats the issue.
I have also had the identical intermittent electric trim experiences. But my plane is a Lancair Columbia 300 .
This has been a very stubborn problem, yet to be corrected, and I’m intrigued by the possibility of it’s being from a source common to both planes.
My first failure was on my first landing as I flew away from the factory upon completion of delivery. My last failure was on my last flight. There have been extensive periods of trouble free flight as well as extensive periods of fairly consistent failure during the intervening 122 hours.
Substantial work to correct my autopilot/trim problems has been performed both by Lancair and STec. I must say they have been very supportive but an intermittent trim problem persists.
The SR20 has one pitch servo. The SR22 has two, one that responds to “manual” input from the pilot and another that is dedicated to the autopilot. In your postings it will be helpful to know which plane you are flying.
My system is like the SR22. I have found I am able to restore manual trim by momentarily engaging the autopilot VS. This can be important to know if manual trim failure is compounded by runaway trim, as mine was in the early failures.
I think mutual benefit may be gained from discussion of mutual failures of the same systems, hence this post.
My plane is a SR22. And we have identical equipment and problems. That is quite suspect. Good luck and lets keep trading info as we can probably help each other.
I’ll add my name to the list of locking trim. After disengaging
the a/p on my 22 trim control was lost. After landing and
shut down it took several times turning power on and off
before trim came back. Has not happen again. Have about
45 hrs. ???