My aircraft has just suffered a throttle cable failure - luckily whilst on
maintenance. I had dropped the throttle lever box to enable upholstery to be
completed; after refitting the box, and exercising the throttle for
duplicate checks, one cable broke. The break is where the inner core of the
cable joins the nipple attaching the cable to the throttle lever; the nipple
is perfectly free to pivot on its bolt.
The cables have always been a little hard to move - at least when the engine
is not running; because of this internal friction, it appears that when the
throttle is opened the cable can bend down into the box, rather than slide
through the outer.
Two questions arise:
1 Am I right in thinking that there has been some sort of advisory
advice about throttle cables from the factory - if so, where should I find
it?
2 Are the throttle cables currently being issued by the factory
either teflon or nylon lined, and therefore less prone to internal friction?
For the record, my aircraft has been flying for 5 years and has done about
300 hours with a 912UL.
I recently read an article in South Africa about Ron van Leer's forced
landing due to fuel leakage through porous "old type" rubber fuel pipes -
the cotton covered pipes issued by the factory in the early years. I do hope
that no-one is still flying with this type of flexible fuel pipe still
installed; if you are, you are heading for engine failure if you do not
notice seepage before you lose your power. I did note seepage in my aircraft
a year or so ago, and very quickly changed my pipes for the current issue
material.
David
G-BZAM - UK 265
|