Adam Dickson

0.9 degree rotation of centre elevator hinge

One of the stainless steel rivets holding the centre elevator hinge set about 0.5mm proud of the surface - this was removed without difficulty. The head was drilled out carefully monitoring the depth, gentle application of a chisel separated the head and the body of the rivet could be tapped out.


The centre elevator hinge was found to have an angle of 0.9 degrees relative to the elevator axis It does not appear the bearing can absorb this - there is no other natural mechanism for doing so. Enquiries to TAF under way.  Rotating the hinge 180 degrees tried (2nd ss rivet removed) but not found to have any effect - not really expected either. Hinge will be restored to original position.

The cause of the rotation is predominantly a slight twist in the nose of the hinge relative to its base, also a slight rotation of the position of the holes relative to the body of the hinge. There were also some random error (estimated up to +/-0.2 mm in the hole positions) noted - maybe it was jigged by hand.

This post is from Adam Dickson