"Hey Guys, Looks like I'll be doing Rudder stops as an afterthought. What's the
best place and method for this ?"
I don't often contribute but I think this time it is important. My take on
this is;
I am installing stops at both ends. The reason: I hear it is accepted good
practice to stop the control surface, and the force in the control cable is
exactally the same at any point in the system. does the force originate from
your foot or the airodynamic force on the rudder? Which is the applied force
and which is the reaction makes no difference to the components. For the usual
KR style rudder peddle assembly, if the horn is stopped and the peddle still
has travel there will be a high amount of torque applied to the peddle
assembly. That is how mine failed. The pilot applied more right rudder force
that was effectivly needed (not hard to imagine in a stressful situation). The
horn stopped but the peddle continued for another half inch or so and the miter
joint on the peddle assembly snapped. The resulting ground loop provided an
opportunity to redesign the landing gear, I never did like that design.
nothing was bent on the peddle assembly so I simply welded it back together and
added a wrap around gusset with the welds in shear increasing the torsion
stength many time over but now the added torsional strength is mostly redundent
because the peddle assembly will not be loaded in torsion any more than would
be applied by normal aerodynamic rudder load (or is that foot force?).
That's my story and I'm stickin to it.
Pete Gauthier
KR Builder
Woodburn, OR
