Originally Posted by
A. J. Clark
At the present time
I am not sure which surface the flutter is coming from. I have ask the guys I fly with if they could see it or tell
what was fluttering. They never can spot it either. I wouldn't want to do that much work and not have it
solve the problem. Thats why I would first like to do some test to track down the source of the flutter.
I had one other plane that had a terrible flutter. You could see it in the wing it would twist and vibrate violently. Would
almost stop in mid air when it happened. I peeled back the covering at the trailing edge and added some more sheeting to
stiffen the wing up. That didn't change anything the wing still fluttered as before. Then one day the wood dowel
between the two elevator halves broke. I replace it with a 3/32" music wire. Nothing on the plane ever fluttered again.
So I would like to be more positive about where the flutter originates before I put a lot of work into it.
AJ That's why these simple mass balances that Dbacque and I have both experience with and pictured do work and the work every time if it is control surface flutter. Takes maybe a half hour at most to make up and only one small hole in the surface. If that does not cure then simple move on to the elevators or rudder. But dude your airplane is highly suspect for aileron flutter. Many of the old Bridi pattern types had this problem because the aileron stock selected in the kits was simply to light and flexible.
One small hole is all it takes and if you screw around with a bunch of so called fixes sooner or later your airplane is not going recover when you pull that throttle off and its history.
OK now structural flutter is an entirely different matter and normally that is very obvious. This is not what you described AJ in the first airplane that you described as the subject of this thread. Dude I am willing to bet three burned out glow plugs aginst a stale glazed donut that the subject airplane is experiencing aileron flutter. Simple to find out as dbacque and I described. If I am wrong please post back and collect the bet
I hate stale glazed donuts anyway!
John