Clyde, you’re a Godsend!
Spotted Chris’ bird again this afternoon tied down at Norwood, MA. Stunning! Windows chrystal clear, fuselage absolutely spotless - even underneath. Looked extra special sitting between 2 aging 172’s.
Here’s the twist; riveted to the left elevator, just left of the rudder, is a piece of metal about 6 inches long. It is deflected upward as if to continually enhance lift. Having flown nothing but Cherokees I’ve never seen anything like it. Anyone know what it is? Chris, you out there?
Joe LEnnon wrote:
Here’s the twist; riveted to the left elevator, just left of the rudder, is a piece of metal about 6 inches long.
This will be a fixed trim-tab. They’re commonly seen on ailerons and rudders on aircraft that have no trim on those surfaces. I would guess that on the SR20 its function is to aerodynamically trim the elevator to the desired neutral position. The controllable trim is then provided by a spring cartridge in the control system.
I am glad that people are getting a look at my bird. I love this plane! It really is everything they say. The trim tab you are talking about (I think) is meant to counteract P-Factor. The bottom line, however, is that it is probably not necessary. The trim on this aircraft is exceptional, sensitive, but excellent. You can trim out nearly any issue that you ,ight run across, just remember to neutralize the trim on take-off or you’ll find yourself working harder than you should be.
A little trick for cruising: Get to altitude and then set the autopilot, now turn off the autopilot and you are in perfect trim. from there you add very slight control effort to direct the aircraft.
On a non-turbulent day you can leave it trimmed with just the slightest of pressure from your wrist to control the aircraft. On choppy days, you’ll start to get a little tired, but do what I do, land, take a pee and get a soda. While your doing all that the turbuence may have gone away.
My biggest complaint (and I know that Walt and I disagree on this) is the god damn controllers lack of knowledge of the type. I have to answer the question as to what type or aircraft it is, not exagerating, on average 3.5 time per flight.
Most of the time they then start calling me a Bonanza, King Air, or the latest, a Sikorski (not kidding). My favorite so far though was the guy in Hartford that called me a Citation Jet. I was really cool for a few minutes.
Christopher