Citabria Rolls to the Left

With my feet flat on the floor, ... not touching the rudder pedals, my
Citabria rolls to the left.

I have to hold right stick a bit for an entire trip.

I was told the the wing had to be "bent".
There are adjustments at the base of each strut on both sides of the
fuselage. I'd like to take in a turn or two and see what happens, but I
don't know which side to adjust.

-shoe

"John Shoemaker" wrote in message
...
With my feet flat on the floor, ... not touching the rudder pedals, my
Citabria rolls to the left.

Torque?

I have to hold right stick a bit for an entire trip.

I was told the the wing had to be "bent".
There are adjustments at the base of each strut on both sides of the
fuselage. I'd like to take in a turn or two and see what happens, but I
don't know which side to adjust.

Trim?

Sounds like you need to have the plane re-rigged. Talk to your A&P.

"John Shoemaker" wrote in message
...
With my feet flat on the floor, ... not touching the rudder pedals, my
Citabria rolls to the left.

I have to hold right stick a bit for an entire trip.

I was told the the wing had to be "bent".
There are adjustments at the base of each strut on both sides of the
fuselage. I'd like to take in a turn or two and see what happens, but I
don't know which side to adjust.

-shoe

John Shoemaker wrote:

There are adjustments at the base of each strut on both sides of the
fuselage. I'd like to take in a turn or two and see what happens, but I
don't know which side to adjust.

I had a similar problem with my Maule. Shortening the left rear strut one turn
pretty much took care of it. Shortening it two turns warped the wing too much,
which showed as a wrinkle in the lower skin across several bays. If one turn
doesn't do the trick on your plane, I would lengthen the right rear strut one
turn.

George Patterson
Brute force has an elegance all its own.

If you bring the left wing closer to the fuselage, it will warp the
wing down(adding washout, is the correct term). This will cause roll
to the right. However, due to the fact it is better for stall
behavior, it would probably be better to move the right wing further
from the fuselage (more threads showing). You will need an assistant
to hold the wing while you work on it. Do it with little fuel. Before
you do this, adjust the rudder trim so when you are tracking straight
ahead, the wings are level right to left. Your ball should also be
centered. There may be some compromise here.

So it is adjust the rudder for wing low, and adjust the wing warp for
pulling to the left or right. Get it?

You should adjust the plane for a typical load, at typical airspeed.
It is imposssible to rig a plane perfectly without onboard rudder and
aileron trim for all loads and airspeeds, as the angle of attack
changes with load and airspeed, thus affect the needed rudder, and
rudder causes roll to the left or right, meaning you need aileron trim
(wing warping)...ad infinitum.

John Shoemaker wrote in message . ..
With my feet flat on the floor, ... not touching the rudder pedals, my
Citabria rolls to the left.

I have to hold right stick a bit for an entire trip.

I was told the the wing had to be "bent".
There are adjustments at the base of each strut on both sides of the
fuselage. I'd like to take in a turn or two and see what happens, but I
don't know which side to adjust.

-shoe

John Shoemaker wrote in message . ..
With my feet flat on the floor, ... not touching the rudder pedals, my
Citabria rolls to the left.

I have to hold right stick a bit for an entire trip.

I was told the the wing had to be "bent".
There are adjustments at the base of each strut on both sides of the
fuselage. I'd like to take in a turn or two and see what happens, but I
don't know which side to adjust.


Best and first thing to do is get out the manual and correctly level
the a/c, and verify correct rigging. There will be a procedure for
leveling the a/c and then for checking for correct rigging. Once you
know that the a/c is correctly rigged, you can then start making
adjustments to correct the problem. It could be a rigging problem, a
trim tab problem, a control throw problem.... By blindly making
adjustments it will be a hit or miss proposition on finding what is
messed up. Start from having the rig correct and make one adjustment
at a time to work out what it really needs. It will involve lots of
trips around the patch, but won't be a frustation builder.

Craig C.