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

Fear and Loathing in Northrock Business Park

It was close to lunch time, and I opened the door to my office ---

And saw a collection of people down the hallway, just outside of Senator Jerry Moran's office.  (The Senator and I are office neighbors.  One thin wall separates his staff personnel from my office/lab.

What?!

I heard passionate words; a variety of voices, and I noticed the head staffer standing in the hallway, listening patiently to a mixture of anger, confusion, persuasion, and distrust. 

45 minutes later, they were gone. 

It's early in the campaign season; I'm sure there will be more.

Random Observations:

1.  Why am I next to a Senator's office?  (A:  It's actually a great place to be.)

2.  Who was this group?  (A:  I'm pretty sure it was moveon.org)

3.  What does this have to with ultralight airplanes?  (A:  not much.)

4.  What does this have to do with "Fear and Loathing" (Hunter S. Thompson's famous novels/movie)? 
(A: Well, I was handed a button which said, simply, "Dream".  In some sense, "Fear and Loathing (the novel) was about a pursuit of the American dream.  And then there's "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail", also by Thompson.  Seemed like some convenient parallels.)

Fascination of flying like a bird

I've never just posted a link before.

But today, I make an exception.

Here is a video of a model airplane which flies *exactly* like a real bird.

Best Aircraft at Oshksoh 2011

Long time readers are aware of my interest and experimentation in electric aircraft.  Here's the first one I've seen that appeals to me.  It had reasonable performance, length of flight, and simplicity.

My attempts to fly the Belite with electrics have produced a very good, very short flight.  I'd shelved the project until I had some inspiration worth working on.

I learned a lot from this plane.  Got my inspiration back.