Today was one of those picture perfect summer days. The sky is clear, humidity ridiculously low with temps in the high 70's low 80's. I thought to myself, perfect evening for my Wing Surfer (Bixler under another name). She's been sitting for a few months, so I gave her a good once over which entailed soldering on a new bullet connector and tightening the quick connects on the control rods. Once complete, I stepped out the back door to a picture perfect sunset. Visions of my Surfer reflecting the orange light of the now below the horizon sun filled my head.
At about 3/4 throttle I gave the plane a toss. Immediately she rolled into a gentle right-hand turn that I could not counter. So, I did my best to hold her from rolling over, allowing her to circle back to the ground. Weird. She's never done that before.
I double checked the centering on all of the control surfaces - perfect. Maybe I made the classic mistake of reversed controls - nope. Gave the sticks a wiggle and all appeared well. Hedging my bets, I pushed rudder and aileron trim full left.
I gave her another toss in the air and she climbed out nicely. I made a right turn then a left. The left turn seemed to be a bit delayed and sluggish. Hmm.... I circled back overhead and saw the issue. The left aileron was hanging full down. I thought, "broken clevis?" Then, it went back to center. Hmmm.... Then it went wonky again.
I was able to bring her in for a safe landing. Once back in the house I discovered not a broken clevis but a whacked out servo. Now, I don't think its stripped. It just doesn't seem to be able to decide where center is. I've attached a video of this strange servo. Does anyone have an idea of what has made my servo loose its danged mind and how I might fix it?
At about 3/4 throttle I gave the plane a toss. Immediately she rolled into a gentle right-hand turn that I could not counter. So, I did my best to hold her from rolling over, allowing her to circle back to the ground. Weird. She's never done that before.
I double checked the centering on all of the control surfaces - perfect. Maybe I made the classic mistake of reversed controls - nope. Gave the sticks a wiggle and all appeared well. Hedging my bets, I pushed rudder and aileron trim full left.
I gave her another toss in the air and she climbed out nicely. I made a right turn then a left. The left turn seemed to be a bit delayed and sluggish. Hmm.... I circled back overhead and saw the issue. The left aileron was hanging full down. I thought, "broken clevis?" Then, it went back to center. Hmmm.... Then it went wonky again.
I was able to bring her in for a safe landing. Once back in the house I discovered not a broken clevis but a whacked out servo. Now, I don't think its stripped. It just doesn't seem to be able to decide where center is. I've attached a video of this strange servo. Does anyone have an idea of what has made my servo loose its danged mind and how I might fix it?