Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'limit switch'.
-
Here's a new one, at least new to me. Not sure exactly when, but sometime in the last few months I changed my procedure on when I would set trim for takeoff position, and I noticed that occasionally on the ground the thumb switch would be a little "balky", like it would activate in one direction or not the other briefly. It always ended up working eventually in pre-flight, and NEVER did anything weird in-flight. So figuring I learned to fly with manual trim and this wasn't a dangerous situation, I decided to just keep an eye on it to see if I could detect a pattern. Lo and behold, today I was just doing database updates and decided to do some tests. With everything at rest and the Master on, pushing the trim switch did NOTHING, either direction, no matter what I tried. But then something clicked in my head and I thought "well, these yokes are at full rest position (meaning all the way forward), which is a totally non-flying position. What happens when I pull them back a more neutral flying position?" VoilĂ , as soon as the yoke was in a more natural flying position, the trim switch worked immediately in both directions, no hesitation, no problemo. So it seems as though there is a limit switch that deactivates the trim button when the yokes are too far forward, but I couldn't find anything about this in the POH. Has anyone ever heard of this? On the long-bodies, the yokes at rest do go all the way to the forward stops, unlike the mid- and short-bodies where there is a mechanism that keeps them in a more neutral position. Perhaps in all my prior pre-flights in two years of owning this airplane I always had the yoke pulled back somewhat which is why I never noticed it. Or perhaps there is still something wrong that I need to keep investigating. Any thoughts?
-
So today after doing a practice ILS and a go-around from 50 feet, the flaps stuck full down. The airplane was quite a bit below gross so it did climb, but performance was marginal. Anyways, limped home at 120 MPH and after landing, the flaps came up no problem. A full cycle or two they work fine now. However, I know airplanes rarely fix themselves, so what do we think might have happened here and better, how do we prevent it in the future? I tried banging on the flap switch and rough handling it, and resetting the flap CB. Nothing would raise the flaps.
-
Hey guys (and gals).... I very recently bought a 75 M20F. It is very low time but has sat for a while. Obviously there will be little issues with a 40 year old plane, but I don't care. She is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Anyway... I need your help. Went flying and wrung her out a little, testing the low speed envelope, did about five touch and go's and returned her to the hanger. This morning, I pulled her out and found the green gear down light not working. It would not test with the press to test and the gear horn sounded. The "unsafe" light operates normally. Everything operated normally except the gear down light. Of course, the gear horn sounded with throttle retardation. The manual indicator in the floor showed down and locked and there was no problems with the landing. I am pretty sharp with electronics and have a maintenance manual coming. I have learned that the indicator half of the down limit switch will fail on occasion. Does sound like a likely culprit? The plane sat for 14 years after the owner died and I am sure there is some grime in the switch. Is it possible to clean the contacts with contact cleaner? Thanks in advance for your ideas!