Thorp Air Command - T18.net

It boggles my mind too, Dick.

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John Evens
Arvada, Colorado
T-18 N71JE (sold)
Kitfox 7 SS N27JE

Dick,
If you need a new 578, I have them in stock.
Cubes

While poking around my T-18 today I decided I need to change both rudder cables (part 518-1). Is there a source for cables already made or do I need to pull one and get a measurement to have them custom made?

Thanks,
Jeff

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

I have them already made up.
Cubes

Excellent! I will be contacting you soon.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

Jeff J - why did you decide that you needed to replace your rudder cables? Condition?

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John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)

Big flat spots where they exit the fuselage. I had noticed it when I bought the airplane and chose to blow it off then. Looked at them again while doing other maintenance and decided I should go ahead and get it over with. No point in waiting until the strands start breaking. If you have never looked at the criteria, AC 43.13-1B fig 7-17 has a pretty good drawing (mine match the middle drawing). Fig 7-18 is a black and white picture though it shows a cable past due to be changed.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

Do you have fairleads where the cables exit ?

RB

Yep...doesn't matter, the only places cables wear out is at pulleys and fairleads. Use to have to change rudder cables every other year on an AT-502 because of wear at the fairleads. A local J-3 needs a couple of new cables because of wear where the cables pass through fairleads and/or the fabric. Made a new cable for it last year because an aileron cable was wore bad at a fairlead mid way up the wing strut. The A-10 and U-2 were the same way. Only wear out cables at the fairleads and/or pulleys. The A-10 doesn't have pulleys, just straight runs from bell crank to bell crank with fairleads to keep the cable off the structure.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

Cable looked pretty good at first glance. Unfortunately, glancing is not inspecting. The other side was only slightly better.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

I shouldn't make this post but I am going to anyway....I find very easy to believe a problem like that can make it that long and go uncorrected. I have seen equally shocking problems on "certified" airframes maintained by trained and "certified" people. That something like something like this can be built into an aircraft and go unnoticed and/or uncorrected on a homebuilt, possibly built by someone with no aviation maintenance experience or systems knowledge and maintained and inspected by that same builder... well... I expect it when there is personal freedom to do what you want without any real oversight.

I help people who ask to the best of my ability. I don't know everything, in fact, I know a lot less than I have yet to learn and just because I could pass a couple of tests many years ago isn't proof I am a good mech. I do not hire out to work on homebuilts because of things I have seen.

added edit: This isn't meant to imply all amateur built aircraft have severe flaws. Just pointing out that they are amateur built and some people are inclined to do only the minimum required to make something work. "Right" or "wrong" doesn't enter into it but sometimes "scary" does.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson