At 22:18 28 March 2004, Andy Blackburn wrote:
One additional thought - I suspect that for older gliders,
wearing of bearings/bushings may degrade the flutter
margin faster than normal material aging degrades the
G-limit, so you might need to think differently if
you have a high-time glider.

Thoughts?


I think your definetly right Andy. My Ventus is in
the shop now replacing worn bushings in the aileron
circuits. Last year when getting very close to VNE
on final glide (you know me always coming in high
I had to hold a little right aileron into it so the
aileron would not 'start vibrating' which I interept
as incipent to flutter. Side note is I thought it was
only the bushings at the connect point on the aileron,
turns out I had wear on both ends and the 'slide' that
the tube rides on had worn half way through the tube'
Glad I had Bill check them out.

Cliff