On Fri, 09 Sep 2016 15:50:33 -0700, johnsinclair210 wrote:

There's an old procedure called lubrication, try it and you'll be amazed
at the results!

My H.201 got lubed during its last inspection (medium viscosity oil on
all bearings in the boxes and also, because both wings felt a little
stiff, on the bearings in root ribs and was nice and free. Then, for a
variety of reasons it didn't get rigged or flown until mid August. After
assembly positives showed that the brakes were virtually solid. Sliding
the wings apart let me check each wing separately. I have a special tool
fabricated from 3mm wall thickness alloy tube and a 10mm solid rod
because that makes routing maintenance easier. One wing was as expected,
but the other was very stiff indeed, but opening and closing that brake
several times made it less stiff and a shot of oil on the root rib
bearing made it nice an free again. Since then its remained rigged but
last week I noticed it was tending to stiffen up again.

I've had my Libelle, s/n 82, so balsa skins and top and bottom brakes for
10 years and this is the first time I've had her stiffen up like this.

Is this a known problem for 201s?

Am I using the right lubricant?

I used oil rather than grease since getting the latter into the root rib
bearing would be rather difficult without surgery.



--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |