Nose gear failure

How does that work? Is the tail like the Mooney, where the trim
moves the whole horizontal stab?

I'm not familiar with the tail of the Mooney. The Seneca does have a
stabilator and an anti-servo tab.

There is no problem with stabilator authority, it's just the amount of
physical strength required is high at low airspeeds.

Greg Esres wrote
I'm not familiar with the tail of the Mooney. The Seneca does have a
stabilator and an anti-servo tab.

There is no problem with stabilator authority, it's just the amount of
physical strength required is high at low airspeeds.

The Seneca stabilator with anti-servo tab design is pretty much lifted
from the Twin Comanche (no surprise), which is also very heavy in
pitch as it is slowed from blue line to landing speed. Without
massive retrimming, a good landing is impossible. I never did get the
hang of landing mine properly until I got the electric trim working.
Then I would trim all through short final and flare, and it worked out
OK.

Fix the electric trim. The usual problem with inoperative electric
trim in that system is that nobody has cleaned or lubed the trim
pulleys in years.

Michael

In article ,
Michael wrote:
The Seneca stabilator with anti-servo tab design is pretty much lifted
from the Twin Comanche (no surprise), which is also very heavy in
pitch as it is slowed from blue line to landing speed. Without
massive retrimming, a good landing is impossible.

I have a single Comanche. The trim is super sensitive at cruise airspeeds.
There's a very definite reaction to a slight trim change. You could fly
across the country on less than half (maybe a quarter) of the throw of
the crank. In the slow flight regime you need massive trim travel.
Between cruise and landing there are 5 or 6 full turns of trim (not sure
exactly since I use the electric trim). You need to take 2 or 3 of those
off before takeoff or it will be a real adventure.

hang of landing mine properly until I got the electric trim working.
Then I would trim all through short final and flare, and it worked out
OK.

I stop trimming when I hit 80mph, and I'm not sure there's much left, but
you're probably crossing the fence faster than that in a twin. Even so
it's a lot of work on a go-around while you wait for the trim to come out.

Fix the electric trim. The usual problem with inoperative electric
trim in that system is that nobody has cleaned or lubed the trim
pulleys in years.

In my case the trim motor (behind the baggage compartment near the top
of the plane) had 3 wires going to it, and the shortest one was the only
strain relief, and it eventually broke off.

Be careful not to get any lube on the trim cable or the pully surfaces,
though. If you do you'll never get it off and the motor won't have any
traction.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/