Brief Description: Fabricated E616 and Mounted Trim Servo
Received E-616. Used scap to determine proper mounting holes for the servo mounts. Drilled and prepped the part, including dimple, debur and prime. Riveted up mounting brackets.
The instructions were not clear about the inspection plate mounting. They didn't indicate that the reinforcement plate should be dimpled. Since it was already assembled, I used machine countersink to make room for the dimples in the inspection plate.
Mounted the Ray Allen servo and tested. It is cool to hear airplane noises out of former sheet metal parts. The trim tab moves very smoothly under servo power.
I flew a Diamond D-20 a couple times in the past week. I was amazed to see that it has electric elevator trim, but no manual override. I pointed this out to students. "What do you do with a trim run away?" Sure, you can pull the breaker, but you can't get the trim back where it belongs. On every other TC aircraft I have flown, you can fix runaway trim by turning off trim power, pulling breaker, or turning off the master. Then manually return. The D-20 - and the RV - don't have the manual reversion. I will probably add a separate trim on/off switch to override the stick switch. Might even have a separate up/down on the panel. And certainly will have a pull-type breaker.
