Preventative maintenance on flaps

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Paughco
Senior Master Sergeant
Posts: 2095
Joined: 30 Nov 2014, 12:27

Preventative maintenance on flaps

Post by Paughco »

Guys: Most of us have experienced flap failure - what a drag. Actually more like an asymmetric drag. I preflight my airplane before every flight, and have noticed that that as the flap mechanism starts to wear, the action when I manually wiggle the flap becomes slower. Seems like it's always different on one side. Dunno why, as I don't pull the flap handle until we're in the white arc. I do know this: If I had a real Comanche, and one of the flaps sounded or felt funny when I wiggled it, I'd roll it back into the hangar and service the rollers, tracks, whatever, until the action felt nice and crisp.

We can change air and fuel filters even when they're in the green. Please give us the ability to service our flaps before they fail.

Thank you
ATB
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Al FR-153
Technical Sergeant
Posts: 921
Joined: 08 Feb 2011, 06:39
Location: Between KARR, 82IS, 3CK in Northern Illinois

Re: Preventative maintenance on flaps

Post by Al FR-153 »

If/when I notice that (slow and quieter on pre-flight), I roll over to the hangar and have my friendly A&E take a look. If he throws a caution, they get changed out there. Haven't had one fail in flight since starting that practice. Like you, I try to be gentle on them, especially full flap on short final. But know the feeling of having a failure .... It's a real drag.
Al Heline

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cessna lover

Re: Preventative maintenance on flaps

Post by cessna lover »

Al FR-153 wrote: 28 Jul 2020, 14:53 If/when I notice that (slow and quieter on pre-flight), I roll over to the hangar and have my friendly A&E take a look. If he throws a caution, they get changed out there. Haven't had one fail in flight since starting that practice. Like you, I try to be gentle on them, especially full flap on short final. But know the feeling of having a failure .... It's a real drag.
me to i busted my left flap on the Sky Hawk before definitely makes for an even more interesting control and landing. but i made it back. and i hope we're talking about a virtual bent airplane and not a real one. :lol:

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Al FR-153
Technical Sergeant
Posts: 921
Joined: 08 Feb 2011, 06:39
Location: Between KARR, 82IS, 3CK in Northern Illinois

Re: Preventative maintenance on flaps

Post by Al FR-153 »

Be sure to watch for missing nuts (including the one in the FBO hangar) when the flaps get loose.
Al Heline

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