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Troubleshooting the Beaver family of ultralight aircraft - Control System Failure
UltralightNews.com
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text
ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived
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Beaver, Beaver ultralight aircraft, Beaver RX 35 ultralight
aircraft, Beaver RX 550 ultralight trainer troubleshooting report.
Failure of the motor mount bracket on the RX-550 RSU was also reported at the junction of the tubes and gusset plate.
Owners have also reported failure of the Foot support tube. Failure occurs at the top of the tube where it attaches to the square
tube. Spectrum aircraft indicated that they felt that this failure was caused due to rough field use, improper propeller alignment
and or balance, and fatigue. Their recommendation was to inspect this area every preflight and to replace the tube (#2612)
every 100 hours. This area was also the subject of an update.
Beaver Ultralight Aircraft Control System Failure: Elevator cables:
One area of concern is the elevator cables. These have been reported to fail in the area of the pulleys which are used to change
the direction of the cable at the rear of the craft. Another area of failure is around the plastic guides which guide the cables
along the side of the boom tube.
Failure of the elevator cables is a widely reported problem. One solution is to run a dual system of cables from front to back.
Beaver recommended that these cables be replaced every 100 hours. They also put out an update which saw the cable pulleys
enlarged. According to industry sources this was not a fix for the problem. The proper fix is to use a larger diameter cable which
has a higher bending co efficient along with larger pulleys.
Another contributing factor to failure is improper cable tension.
Beaver issued advisory 022:
Experience has shown that the UP elevator cable can on high time aircraft, show an unacceptable number of broken strands
around the pulleys on the vertical stabilizer leading edge.
Action: All operators are requested to pay special attention to the cables at the point where they go around the pulleys. Cables
should be checked on every pre-flight with special attention given at the beginning of each day or flying session.
It is mandatory that the cables be replaced after 2 years or 200 hours, whether they show signs of deterioration or not.
Beaver Ultralight Aircraft Boom Tube Fatigue:
Two areas of fatigue or failure have been reported on the Beaver line of aircraft. One area is at the vertical stab post bolt
attachment point. The other directly below the engine on the main boom. The manufactures recommended that "stop drilling"
be used to prevent further cracking of the main tube at the vertical stab post.
Jury strut failure:
Owners report failure of the jury struts at the jury strut wrap around. This should be an area of regular inspection. The jury
strut bracket #959 and #2959 operate under tension loading during flight and the forces are more concentrated at the front side
struts. Installation of the brackets using needle nose pliers may scar the edge of the bracket weakening it. Pre-flight of the
bracket should concentrate on the area between the rod end and the strut. Should there be any indication of scarring then the
brackets should be replaced.
If the rubber insulator for the bracket is to large a diameter it is suggested that black electrical tape be used to as a wrap to the
proper diameter.
