Miscellaneous : Controls & Linkage

Top pivot of foot rudder bar.

Bottom pivot of rudder bar from inside floor board; but using a formed sheet tunnel rather than angle where the two bottom fuselage skins come together

Throttle and mixture quandrant.

Here is the semi-finished cockpit area; the airplane is yellow on all the bottom surfaces, yellow on the leading edges, and yellow inside. Every where else is polished. The stick assembly is shown here; the little lever is a trim mechanism that puts a little spring tension on the elevator push rod (up or down). This is a direct copy from Steve Witman's Tailwind plans. I have been told by some Tailwind owners that it works great; others say it doesn't. We'll find out.

Here is the front view of the brake handles that I have copied from the Hummelbird. They actuate cable go-cart brakes inside Hegar aluminum wheels. More pictures to follow.

Here is a side view of the brake handles. Notice how the cable is clamped by a small aluminum pad. The cables are routed up to the back of the B bulkhead, then are plugged into a plastic block. Then there is a yellow bracket that cable ties the cable sheath to keep it from pulling out. Detail of the lower angle longeron can be seen here also where it connects forward of B bulkhead. This is not according to plans (which has it extending through the bulkhead to rivet to the top of the spar).

Another brake handle view showing them pulled slightly "on".

Brake handles in rest position. If you have any questions, e-mail me.

Here is a nice view showing the cockpit area; notice the tabs on the ends of the rudder foot bars; to keep your feet from slipping off. I am using a seperate arm to activate the pushrod going to the rudder; this is not according to plans, but I didn't want to be pushing on the bar with my feet.

This is a picture of my flat plate aileron bellcranks, inspired by Larry Flagg's modifications. They are very easy to make (hack saw from .090" 4130 steel), add the same center pivot tube as on the plans, then tack weld the lug in position shown. Now check for full movement of aileron/ stick as dictated on plans. You can easily break the tack, grind, then reposition to test. I actually made the first one from soft aluminum to test size, etc. E-mail me with questions; I can send a bitmap (Microsoft Paint / .bmp) drawing to you that will give some dimensions.

This is the bellcrank I made having seen Jack Dernoseks photos. Made from 4130 steel 0.090 after initially making from alloy to dtermine the size and angles etc. The pushrod has two nylon inserts to hold the bellcrank central and thus no rodend needed.Working on this part of the controls was, for me, the least enjoyable job so far.

Looking at the centre section left hand bellcrank.

The trailing edge is removable to allow inspection and fitting. 4 nutplates and screws hold it on.

Cover held in place.

Control stick and aileron actuating bellcrank showing how I mounted the nylon bearing blocks on the reverse side of Bulkhead "C".

The trailing edge on the centre section is different to that on the plans due to the fact that I used solid rivets and needed to close up the wing panel but still work on the control system.

The controls - pushrod with no rodends, rudder bar, control stick and bearing blocks.

The control stick fitting on Bulkhead "B" has a hole drilled in it that meets up with a slot cut in the tube that goes into it so that the column cannot move rearwards.

This shows the complete fitting. Works very smoothly.

Close up of the rear of Bulkhead "C" - sorry about the angle!

Here is a picture from one of Larry Flagg's Teenie Two airplanes (he has built at least four). Good look of the control hook ups here.

Another shot of one of Larry Flagg's Teenie Twos. Good clean design shown here. No problem preflighting these birds!

Another shot of one of Larry Flagg's Teenie Twos. Good clean design shown here. No problem preflighting these birds!

One more shot of the details of one of Larry Flagg's nice Teenie Twos. Good work, Larry.

My rudder bar has additional tubes welded to give an easier foot position.

Next to the seat belt anchor point is a section of angle that is bolted to the rear spar and will hold a roll-over bar set-up.

This is my version of control mechanism to operate plane from center of cockpit.

This is a view of mechanism installed. Note that the stick will be installed after skins are in place. There are 3 self aligning bearings to carry the control tube and stick yoke, one each end and one just to right of center. Bearings are salvage from small electric motors.

Aileron control tubes will pass thru holes in ribs to belcrank as show installed on rib in center of outer wing panel.

Here's a close up of belcrank. It is mounting with an angle such that the final tube will pass thru hole in bottom skin to aileron horn.

The aileron control in the TT forms an arc and this produces a twist in the aileron links, I did four different setups until I found this solution and is to make a pivot at the end that rotates free making the arc mevement into a linear movement and this makes the control of the ailerons, super smooth. I did this control from an 8mm VW block stud, I heat it to cherry red with a torch and bendt it to form the control, then welded it to the pivot and at the end I welded a thick washer, put a tube sleeve and welded another thick washer to seal the pivot. See in the pictures how from end to end the pivot keeps the aileron push-pull rod end bearings straight.

full left position

full right position

detail of the pivot end welded

Single Brake lever operates both brakes and gives equal pressure to both wheels. Pully is from Home Depot.

Another brake lever picture.

José Luis´s control trim

T2 R.Sajardo His Stick control has one inch more in heigth

T2 R.Sajardo Aileron control

Cheap Throttle Quadrant

All the parts together

Back

Main

Visit the Teenie I and Teenie II Forum