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I have a question for anyone that has experience with this. I've noticed that there are no provisions for cable stretch in the rudder cables for the SS7. My father and I are debating whether or not the use of turnbuckles are necessary. Has anyone had any issue with cable stretch? Or know where a good location for turnbuckles may be?
Pictures would be helpful.
Thanks
Andrew
Herrin, IL
Hi Andrew,
Your question caught my eye since I considered the same options when building our series 7 with regard to the rudder cable system.
Here is the conclusion I came to - cable stretch is a non-issue since the design of the rudder cable system has the springs behind the rudder pedals taking care of the slack anyway. It is an open loop design with the springs keeping stuff as it should be automatically. I have rememberances of flying other airplanes with rudder cable slop and the annoyances that causes - seasonal adjustments and looseness in the rudder system- doesn't happen in the kitfox - no slop - never a problem - and it automatically adjusts for seasonal expansion/contraction - overall a rather neat system. This is one of the reasons a person can easily fall in love with the kitfox. You have no rudder cable slop in a kitfox - period. If you want rudder cable slop - get a plane other than a Kitfox......<grin>
What I do see as a consideration is how well a person centers the rudder pedals when swaging the cables - if this isn't done exactly right - it is possible to have the rudder centered and the pedals a bit off; however - even in that were to happen - a person can make adjustments by fabricating different length links at the rudder horn after the fact (I didn't have to - but a person certainly can)
I think a person won't hurt anything by putting turnbuckles in - gives a person a chance to make some adjustments with rudder pedal/rudder relationships; and, between the pilot and copilot rudder controls. If a person wants to really over-engineer this thing - a person could put turnbuckles at the rudder horns and on the co-pilots cable - what do I think? Neither is necessary. A person has to ask themselves - is complexity or simplicity a virtue?
Do have to consider two things.
1) The centering of the pilot's rudders with the rudder when swaging the ends
2) Making sure that the rudders for the co-pilot are relatively in agreement with the pilots rudder pedals when swaging the co-pilot's cables to the main cable.
Sincerely,:)
Dave S
Kitfox 7 Trigear
912ULS Warp Drive
Thanks Dave. Never thought of the system like that. Good point. Simplicity is a good thing. Originally bought the aircraft partially done so, I'll have to see how the previous owner did on the pilot/co-pilot cable swaging.
Thank you again.