TangoWhiskey
Touchdown! Greaser!
OK, a little puzzle for you here. Flew with my friend, Terry, in his nice Cherokee 235 today for some instrument practice (hood work/safety pilot stuff). We decided to do VOR nav work and leave the GPS alone, which was good, because the few times we tried to use it, we were getting RAIM errors (first time I've seen those--it said we "arrived RY16" while still 6 miles out!).
Anyway, we ended up at Ardmore, OK and took the courtesy car to lunch. Got back, in the plane, fired up, I'm setting up radios when Terry says "check the yoke... the controls don't feel right."
I try it... push in and out really smooth, but left/right aileron movement is stiff, binding, and grinding... definitely NOT okay. It was gusty and windy, but this was not related to that. He taxied out of our spot on the ramp to see if moving would make a difference (wind?), but it didn't (duh!), so we pulled into another spot and powered down.
I got out to see if any of the ailerons were binding, had lost their counterweight, etc. I was able to move the ailerons just fine, and the control yokes moved just fine too, inside the cockpit. Terry bent over, under the panel, and checked the cables and chains and sprockets as I moved the ailerons. There was no obvious issues.
We popped the access panel to the rear of the plane, just to make sure no cables were binding back there (although the aileron cables don't run to the rear, they run under the floorboards to pullies in the wings... we were just trying to be as thorough as possible).
We talked for a minute, trying to determine the best course of action. Binding or stiff controls aren't something we felt comfortable flying with, and an unknown problem that "solves itself" is never a good feeling when you're about to launch yourself several thousand feet into the sky.
But, not being able to reproduce the problem, we decided to fire up again. He climbed in, I climbed in, we started the engine, and as he went to check control surfaces again, they were binding, once more!!
OK, this is getting serious, and we definitely need to determine what's up before we go anywhere. I posited that perhaps my seat was pushing down on the floor boards, and that if I got out we could check that. He powered down, I got out, and sure enough, the problem went away--the controls worked fine. I made some comment about not being "THAT big...".
It was a this moment that Terry laughed, realized the problem, we both slapped our foreheads, and two minutes later we were comfortably climbing out, with no lingering worries or concerns.
What do you think was the root cause of our issue??
Anyway, we ended up at Ardmore, OK and took the courtesy car to lunch. Got back, in the plane, fired up, I'm setting up radios when Terry says "check the yoke... the controls don't feel right."
I try it... push in and out really smooth, but left/right aileron movement is stiff, binding, and grinding... definitely NOT okay. It was gusty and windy, but this was not related to that. He taxied out of our spot on the ramp to see if moving would make a difference (wind?), but it didn't (duh!), so we pulled into another spot and powered down.
I got out to see if any of the ailerons were binding, had lost their counterweight, etc. I was able to move the ailerons just fine, and the control yokes moved just fine too, inside the cockpit. Terry bent over, under the panel, and checked the cables and chains and sprockets as I moved the ailerons. There was no obvious issues.
We popped the access panel to the rear of the plane, just to make sure no cables were binding back there (although the aileron cables don't run to the rear, they run under the floorboards to pullies in the wings... we were just trying to be as thorough as possible).
We talked for a minute, trying to determine the best course of action. Binding or stiff controls aren't something we felt comfortable flying with, and an unknown problem that "solves itself" is never a good feeling when you're about to launch yourself several thousand feet into the sky.
But, not being able to reproduce the problem, we decided to fire up again. He climbed in, I climbed in, we started the engine, and as he went to check control surfaces again, they were binding, once more!!
OK, this is getting serious, and we definitely need to determine what's up before we go anywhere. I posited that perhaps my seat was pushing down on the floor boards, and that if I got out we could check that. He powered down, I got out, and sure enough, the problem went away--the controls worked fine. I made some comment about not being "THAT big...".
It was a this moment that Terry laughed, realized the problem, we both slapped our foreheads, and two minutes later we were comfortably climbing out, with no lingering worries or concerns.
What do you think was the root cause of our issue??
