I also know that the alerted rescue team
> afterwards was quite shocked when they discovered in what condition the
> airplane was landed.
>
> What happened is that the pin slipped out of the socket, and then rested
> against the edge of the socket.
If memory serves me correctly it was the original factory aircraft G-YURO
that had an incident, where on assembly of the wings to aircraft, one flap
pin failed to engage the cross tube, instead going down the side of it. This
was not noted until after take off where by the aircraft returned and landed
OK. This prompted a bulletin from the factory to cut an inspection hole in
the Flap root close out to check that the pin was correctly engaged.
I decided instead to fill in the Flap root closed out with foam and fibre
glass, building in a tapered cone leading to the pin.
On assembly of the wings to aircraft the Flap cross tube enters the large
opening of the cone, as the flap cross tube nears the pin the tapered cone
dimensions are now just slightly bigger than the Flap cross tube,
centralised to the pin, this forcing the Flap cross tube to self align with
the pin, the tapered cone at this point becomes a straight tube to the base
of the pin.
I do not need or have an inspection hole and regarding the incident above
should the pin come out of the tube for what ever reason!!! it has nowhere
to go but straight back into the tube.
Regards
Peter Austin
ZK-ZEB
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