mtv wrote:Aeropod....Thanks for your very comprehensive description of rigging of Cessna gear.

I have had a few folks call me for some instruction in a Cessna taildragger, because they were really struggling. Without fail, those wound up being badly rigged gear.

And, frankly, most mechanics HATE rigging Cessna gear, it's messy and takes time and patience. BUT, properly rigged gear is absolutely vital for safety.

Frankly, any more, I'm pleasantly surprised when I fly a new to me Cessna taildragger that has really well rigged gear.

With regard to the wings and Dogpilot's comments on damage and new: I picked up a brand new Cessna 185 in 1986..a 85 model with a total of 22 hours on it. Before I flew it, doing a pre-flight, I noted that the inboard ends of the flap and aileron on one side didn't fair.....the inboard end of the aileron was a good inch higher than the flap end. So, I pointed this out to our Chief of Maintenance, who called their check airman, who'd done the acceptance flight. That guy (who shall remain nameless) said the plane flew just fine. I argued the point for a while, but got outvoted in the end.

So, I headed north with the plane, and indeed, it flew just fine, stalled straight, etc, etc. In fact, it was rigged very well.

Flew that airplane for four or five years. We got a new Chief of Maintenance, and I took the plane in for it's annual at the shop in ANC. The new Chief looked at that aileron and told me that was going to get fixed. They did. This airplane was equipped with a Robertson STOL kit, which requires significant additional balance weights to be installed inside the ailerons. It seems that in the process of putting that aileron back together, the RSTOL folks had effectively straightened the trailing edge of the left aileron.....and only the left.

While I was waiting for the plane, I looked at a bunch of 185s, and found two others that had the same issue with left aileron. Both were 1985 models, both had RSTOL kits installed.

Only thing we could figure was that Robertson's left aileron jig got tweaked, or????

Anyway, it flew just fine after the mechanics re-rigged it properly to factory specs.

MTV

StuBob wrote:It flies and rolls straight, and the eccentrics are within some tolerance as told me by my Toronto expert. What got me to looking into this is the fact that my tires wear a lot more on the outside, and the right tire MIGHT wear more than the left.

dogpilot wrote:Great Caesar's Ghost! The internet is again on the attack. First off there is nothing magic about rigging a 185. That being said, I always leave a dried toad in the left wingtip, just in case. The maintenance manual is very clear on how to set up the controls. Once you finish with that phase, you flight test and adjust the eccentric bushing on the wings to achieve level wings flight without pilot input. This is also in the manual.

What you do get is folks who, perhaps cannot read, doing things like dropping some flap to correct for roll instead of adjusting the bushings. This is sometimes due to lazy mechanics, it is a pain to adjust the eccentrics. Or the eccentrics are corroded and there is an element of lazy or cheap owner in not replacing them. Then there is the unfortunate reality of: most 185's have been dinged at least once and may be slightly too bent to rig out the roll with the eccentrics.

I have had customers looking for a 185 with no damage history. After I stop laughing and wipe the tears out of my eyes, I tell the obviously Bonanza pilot. If a 185 has no damage history, it is because they didn't log the repair. An overwhelming percentage of 185's have been dinged. Personally I have owned a repair station that specialized in crash damage repair on fixed price not to exceed contracts with the insurance companies. Repaired aircraft can fly better than new, since we paid more attention to the build up than the factory. We rebuilt a 206 once and just happened to have a new 206 in the shop as well. We pulled string lines on several points on the two aircraft and our rebuild was closer tolerance than new.

Of course there are the Billy-Bob repairs that may be a bit hinkey, but those tend to be the ones not in the logbooks. Those happen on all kinds of aircraft, especially Bonanzas. Since that crowd is obsessed with the phrase. We would tend to notice the repairs, since we usually had 5-10 Bonanza gear ups in the shop a year.

Short answer: Any decent mechanic with high school level reading skills can rig a 185. It also helps if they have the proper tools, like a lot of extensions for the socket wrenches to adjust the eccentrics, a tensiometer and a 3' metal straightedge. Even as a very green newly minted A&P I was able to rig my first 185, in the field, in Honduras (god awful heat) after I assembled it back together. One of the pilots had kissed a tree with the right wing on landing when the left brake failed landing on a narrow jungle strip. We had to truck it out, what a pain that was, a bit of jungle trimming was in order.

slow18 wrote:Does anyone have specific names of folks that can do a good proper 180 gear alignment (with experience) in the Pacific Northwest? Places to avoid?

Feel free to PM me.

Thanks!