Service Bulletin 8-24: Rod End Bearing needs cap washers

We had a partial failure on a rod end bearing, on a lift strut.  The point of failure is where the lift struts attach to the fuselage.  The internal structure of the rod end bearing began to fail, and as a result, the rod end bearing might have slipped over the head of the bolt.   If this had happened, there is a strong possibility that the lift strut might have detached from the bearing bolt on the fuselage, with damaging or catastrophic results.  A simple solution is the addition of a cap washer.  We recommend immediately adding these washers to your aircraft before further flight.  It is important that the top washer is trimmed so that it does not hit or rub the lift strut. 

Failed Lift Strut Rod End Bearing

Another view of Failed Rod End Bearing

In order to prevent these rod end bearings from slipping over the head of the bolt, we are installing cap washers:

Cap Washers, with one trimmed

Here is a photo of the reassembled lift strut attach point, showing the rod end bearings and the cap washers.:

Cap Washers installed on lift strut

The bolt has been reinstalled, complete with quik release key (safety wire is of course also acceptable).

If you need these washers, please contact us and we will supply them at no charge.

The integrity of the rod end bearings should be inspected with each preflight.

Service Bulletin: Broken Flaperon Riser

As Belite manufactures Part 103 aircraft, and also parts for experimental (customer-built) aircraft, this bulletin has no force of law.  You may choose to follow our advice, or ignore it.  We hope you follow our advice. A picture of the broken part, along with a new part is at the bottom of this post.

While inspecting our prototype aluminum airplane, one of our personnel found a broken aluminum flaperon riser on the innermost position on the flaperon.  (The position closest to the fuselage, or root of the wing, where the flaperon connects to the control cable).  Further examination determined that this was a fatigue failure.  This failure appears to have been possible where ever this part was used, and we have been using this part for some time in our entire line of aircraft.  We do not know when this failure occurred.

We have sold aircraft and kit parts with these flaperon risers.  Some were made of steel, some were made of aluminum.  We do not know which customers have steel or aluminum.

If your part is made of steel, you may ignore this directive.  We believe the steel parts are OK.

If your part is made of aluminum, we recommend that you immediately install a reinforcement before further flight.  We are in the process of designing an improved part, and also designing a reinforcement plate for existing installations.  We expect this redesign to be completed by the end of next week.  We expect replacement parts and reinforcements to be available sometime soon thereafter.

Please contact us if you believe you have affected parts, so we can advise you when reinforcement straps are available.

In the future, we will be creating a place for service bulletins on our main website.

The photo is below:

Fatigue Failure on Flaperon Riser