M20J Flap Indicator

[M016576]

I’ve heard about it.  I’ve read about those unfortunate enough to have suffered such an incident... and I’ve often wondered to myself... what would I do if the worst happened to...my flap indicator.

yes... as my son was climbing up onto the wing he slipped and scraped the trailing edge of the flap, and it moved down a little then sprang right back up into place.  As he did, I head a “POP” sound from the panel.  I got out of the plane and my son was fine... and thankfully, so was the flap (not even a Knick on it).  I got back into the cockpit and noticed that the flap indicator post was gone.  Crap.

so, anyone that’s heard of this happenijg before knows that the flap and trim indicators are actually about 5 foot long stainless steel push wires that connect all the way down to the flap and trim motors.  That’s not a typo- the flap one is about 5 feet long.  From the indicator window in the panel, these wires run through their conduits, which go through the floorboards, and between the floorboards and the belly panels to their respective motors, where they have a small adjustment set screw and are bolted directly to the motor arm.  So you really are getting a physical indication of where that flap or trim motor is set!  Unless... of course... the indicator rod has broken off in the window.

the piece you see in the window is an acrylic rod that’s tapered and painted at the top, and held to the push wire by some shrink tubing.  Here’s how I fixed mine...

step one: run the trim all the way down so you don’t break off that indicator too while you’re doing the work.

step two: unscrew the four screws holding the window and indicator into the console.

step three, remove the clear window.  Be careful not to snap off the trim indicator.

Step four: locate the flap indicator push wires behind the console through the opening.  You’ll have to make sure the flaps are all the way up- or you won’t be able to feel the wire behind the console.

my wire bent about 45 degrees when my son pushed the flap down and it sprung back into position- so I had to bend it back to upright.  There is no way to remove the console without drilling out a bunch of rivets or cutting the console open on the passenger side.  I was able to manipulate the wire with my fingers through the flap indicator opening, but it took time- as I was working “blind.”  You’ll need a small mirror to look at the piece through the opening...

I purchase some 1/8” acrylic rod from Amazon for about $10 and measured it out against the trim indicator rod.  Then sanded the tip down and covered it with a small piece of black shrink wrap.  I epoxied that to the flap wire and left it to cure over night.  The next day, I put it all back together.  Good as new.  Total time was about 1.5 hours... much of that was spent trying to figure out how to bend the wire back into shape and reach it.

good as new!

 

 

[carusoam]

Cool...

MS gets answers without asking a question!

hmmmmm.... fancy feet too....

-a-

 

[EricJ]

Your choice of footwear is impressive.

 

[M016576]

26 minutes ago, EricJ said:

Your choice of footwear is impressive.

 

My Daughter was there with me- hence the sparkly sandals! :p

[ArtVandelay]

My Daughter was there with me- hence the sparkly sandals!

How come your cowl flaps are marked inop?

[Missile=Awesome]

7 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

How come your cowl flaps are marked inop?

Missile does NOT have cowl flaps...