---------------------------------------------------------- TeamGrumman-List Digest Archive --- Total Messages Posted Tue 02/24/04: 1 ---------------------------------------------------------- Today's Message Index: ---------------------- 1. 10:14 PM - cracks (TeamGrumman@aol.com) ________________________________ Message 1 _____________________________________ Time: 10:14:39 PM PST US From: TeamGrumman@aol.com Subject: TeamGrumman-List: cracks --> TeamGrumman-List message posted by: TeamGrumman@aol.com I just started an annual on a 76 Tiger. 4000 hours. No cracks. Seriously. No cracks. Based on what the DER has told me, it's the rudder being deflected hard as in a slip or ? that causes the most twist in the torque box formed to support the horizontal. The action of the rudder deflection is passed primarily through the rear bulkhead. Then the section between the rear bulkhead and the horizontal support tries to follow. The large horizontal tries to follow and the inertia is absorbed in the skin of the empenage. Had the vertical supports (to which the horizontal is attached) been properly tied to tray (called the horizontal bulkhead) on which the ELT is mounted, the torque would have been more effectively transmitted to the fuselage and that section would not have flexed (referred to as 'racking') and would not have caused cracking in the lower stiffener. The fix we are working on forms a lightweight bulkhead (semi-solid) across most of the section. Tail dragger anyone? With the tail strengthened .... Also, IF YOU KNOW OF ANYONE WHO HAS A REAR SECTION THAT CAN BE DONATED FOR FITTING THE BULKHEAD, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. ALL I NEED IS THE LAST 20-24 INCHES OF THE FUSELAGE. GARY