While pre-flighting my Moyes LiteSpeed-S 3.5 on Sunday, I found a missing nut at the control bar apex, as shown in the photo below. Normally this junction is partially hidden by the sail and hang loop; here I have tucked those out of the way. The nut on the left side of the photo (VG side, since we're looking down the keel) is normal; the missing nut on the right side is clearly a problem.
Apparently this nylock nut had spontaneously worked its way off the bolt. The bolt is a custom machined part, and had backed out slightly but not enough to protrude from its deeply recessed hole in the cast fitting. All of this is original factory-installed hardware, never disassembled, and the nylock nut had not been reused. Evidently they can work loose in normal glider set up, break down, and flight. If the bolt were to back out the rest of the way in flight, a parachute ride would almost certainly follow.
Moyes glider owners might review their pre-flight checklists to be sure this item is covered. This is also a reminder to all of us that a careful pre-flight is a mighty good idea, even if it only finds one small problem like this every ten years.
Moyes control bar apex hardware
- Ken Andrews
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This is an important issue to check. There has been a Moyes technical advisory out on this for some time.
The link is here: http://www.moyes.com.au/articledetail.a ... =Technical
I read that advisory and checked my Litesport the next time I flew. Sure enough one of the nuts had unscrewed far enough so 50% of the thread was showing inside the nut.
You can get to all Moyes technical advisories here: http://www.moyes.com.au/articles.asp?Cat=Technical
Mike
The link is here: http://www.moyes.com.au/articledetail.a ... =Technical
I read that advisory and checked my Litesport the next time I flew. Sure enough one of the nuts had unscrewed far enough so 50% of the thread was showing inside the nut.
You can get to all Moyes technical advisories here: http://www.moyes.com.au/articles.asp?Cat=Technical
Mike
Nyloc nut
Bullshiiiit ,if you use the green loctite for assembled parts it will hold ,if you use the blue loctite then assemble the parts it will hold and the nut can still be removed if you use the red locktite you will have a hell of a time removing the nut.the important thing is making sure the threads go past the nylon that should hold all by itself.Perhaps longer bolts with a new nyloc nut .Love2glide wrote:*****Don't use thread locker on a nylock nut!*****
The thread locker can eat the plastic lock part, and the dissolved plastic can degrade the thread-lock bond.
Perhaps a new lock-nut and keep an eye on it!