SonexBuilders.net

I have just done the annual on the Sonex I bought in the summer it has only flown 80 hours but there seems to be quite a lot of play in the aileron hinges especially where the push rod connects. Has anyone else noticed this as all the other control surface hinges have none?

Hi paul,
Are you saying its in hinge? Does it have the correct size pin? Is the slop in the rod end? Is it worn there? Correct bolts?

WaiexN143NM
Michael

Paul, take a piece of unused piano hinge, put the hinge pin in it, and see how much slop there is. That should make you feel better. I think you have the slop on the ailerons and not the flaps because the ailerons are shorter and easier to get the hinge halves straight. There might be some wave in the flap hinge halves causing a tighter fit for the pin and no slop. I notice it most on my rudder and flaps actually, although I have the short acro flaps.

The slop is in the hinge, it seems to be worst at the push rod end. You can see the eyelets move just like you would with a undersized pin.

Regarding slop in the aileron hinge. As I understand it, you didn't build this airplane......maybe the builder used an undersized pin because of a slight misalignment of the hinge. Standard pin size is .090 and your pin could be the .078 pin. Check your pin size. Also check to see if the hinge has any movement in case those rivets have loosened up.

Paul,
Did you get a chance to check your pin.? I think gordon was correct in guessing you have an undersized pin. Looking at the aircraft spruce online catalog for hinges and pins , it sells pins only 6 ft x .089 for $4.70. I recently bought some hinge and welded tab pins from vans aircraft. It listed the welded tab pins for the ms/an 20257 hinge material we all use. The pins were for cowling use. But i noticed the pin diameter was slightly less than the stock hinge pin. Maybe better to make bends to go in the curved sides in the cowling. Check your hinge pin diameter. You may want to order new pin material to make pins for your ailerons. Good luck. I hope this helps.

Cheers,

WaiexN143NM
Michael

A search bumped this thread up and Paul's original words:

"quite a lot of play in the aileron hinges especially where the push rod connects"

is an exact description of what my AP and I observed when doing 1153's Condition Inspection this weekend. 391 hours on the aircraft. After some looking at it - the AP passed the plane but said "keep an eye on that".

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Now my reason for searching this term was to see if anyone had tried STAINLESS hinges here to see if they might last longer than aluminum?

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Though now I am going to go make sure the correct diameter pin is in the hinge before I go replacing them. But if in fact the pin diameter is correct and I do have wear building up - has anyone tried stainless hinges here?

The hinges and pins I used are the called out components and supplied by ACS.

I have less than 30hrs on "Chett" and have the same "slop". Probably close to 1/2in of travel at the trailing edges of both the ailerons and flaps. All movement is between the hinges and pin. If it makes any difference in the handling of the plane, I'd be surprised.

I just measured a leftover section of pin and hinge. The pin is .o88in. The hole in the hinge has two slightly different measurements probably due to the nature of rolling the hinge shut. .098in vertically and .1005in fore and aft.

Since the Waiex requires an extruded hinge at the "stub" rudder, I happen to have a left-over section of that as well. It measures .0955 in all directions. There is absolutely -0- movement at that location.

If I were to do it over again, I would use the extruded hinge at all flight control locations. It's wildly expensive compared to the rolled hinge, however. There is also a weight penalty (of course). The extruded hinge weighs approximately 22.5g per foot vs 15g for the rolled style.

I did that; I used extruded hinges for all flight control surfaces. The pins are steel, probably SS since it never has rusted. I used 2117 hard rivets everywhere I could and the hinges were set with a handheld rivet squeezer. Due to the pressure, the hinge deflected slightly in one area. This made it a bear to get the pin inserted. Had to resort to chiselling an end and spinning the pin with a drill motor. I do not look forward to removing them. When I painted my wings, I left the ailerons attached for that reason. I can say there is no slop. I bought steel drill rod slightly undersize from Grainger in 3 ft lengths just in case but didn't need to use any of it.

Rick Caldwell
Xenos 0057

Thanks all - I'll pull a pin and do some measuring and then figure what's going on / to do.