Jeffpro

My Feedback: (1)

I was flying my TwinStar today and it was behaving as if it had a mind of its own--all over the sky and wanting badly to roll and dive. It flew like it had lost an engine or an aileron, but a ground check showed the engines and ailerons were fine.

Then one of my buddies saw it: one of the 1/4-inch-wide pieces of trim that runs the length of the wing had come slightly loose--just enough to flutter and disrupt the airflow over the wing. A 20-cent piece of Monokote almost brought down a plane. And I had even put a thick coat of MinWax over the trim when it was new to keep it down.

I've seen large pieces of covering tear loose and bring down planes, but it's still hard to believe that a slightly loose piece of trim could have such a profound effect. Be sure the trim on your airplane is fastened down well!

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

I never saw a loose trim piece cause a problem until recently. I was buddy boxing a guy with some kind of 40 size trainer. The more we flew the more difficult it became to handle. So I landed it and a 1" wide trim piece on the wing came loose. I don't think it would have bothered it much but one end was stuck under the rubber bands and the other was attached. When we ran the engine up it would turn and act like a small parachute. A razor knife fixed it.

David

hirschr

At least you recovered, it would have been a shame to loose a plane over something so simple... Where in Knoxville do you fly?

Jeffpro

My Feedback: (1)

I fly at the KCRC field in West Knoxville, out near Melton Hill Lake. Do you fly in East Knoxville?

hirschr

I flew at an East Knox club once - I think they have since moved. Seems like they called it Tennessee Take-Offs. I mainly fly out of a private field (read horse pasture) behind my house, but I really need to get out to KCRC to maiden my latest - an 8ft wingspan SPAD weedy conversion. Ever flown at the little grass strip off of West Emory Rd. in Powell? Saw a guy flying a nice twin inverted about 10 ft off the deck there about a year ago - thought you might be the same guy...

Jeffpro

My Feedback: (1)

No, that wasn't me. But I'm looking for a bigger place to fly. At KCRC, we have a 300-foot paved runway with lake on three sides--not the place to fly some of my bigger planes (or my ducted fan F-18). I've been driving to Chattanooga for the jet.

hirschr

Have you checked out the Blount County club? http://www.fly-bcma.com/ Might save you some travel time...

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

Same thing happen to a guy at our club. His twinstar also had the trim pieces come loose after only a couple of flights. I wondered if the problem was isolated to his plane or not.

Jeffpro

My Feedback: (1)

I flew at the Blount County field for the first time a few weeks ago. I wasn't crazy about the setup. The runway runs uphill and downhill and there's trouble all around. Nice people there, though!

flyernater

i have never herd of a plane crashing buy a lose trim

Joe123s

I just bought an alpha60 a trainer. I have been flying since i was 8 for about 15 years on and off. Had all my planes get run over by a car, thats a long story so i bought this one to get back into flying. 3rd flight up all went well, then we heard a buzzing noise and i had pretty much no control. ended up hitting pretty hard. i was able to glue it all back together. What i found was a trim peice on the wing was loose in the middle but attached at both ends. My father said that there was no way that was what made it crash. It definately wasn't flutter from the control surfaces. I think it had to be from the trim peice. Got rid of it and put it all back together, flies great now.