Piper Saratoga control breakout forces

[RockyMnt1]

I recently got some time in 2 different Piper Saratogas. My question involves the control breakout forces for pitch.

On both of those airplanes, it took approx 3-5 lbs of breakout force on the yoke to get the control moving both fore and aft. Not only that, once the control was moving, it would seem to bind during large control movements (on the ground!!), so the result was that it wouldn't move very smoothly. I actually had to use 2 hands on the yoke during landing, not because the airplane was mistrimmed, but to attempt to make small changes in pitch smoothly.

Is this common for Piper products?? If this happened on one airplane I would lean toward a control adjustment issue, but it happened on 2 independent aircraft.

Any comments/ideas??

 

[bigD]

I have had sticky elevator control on all sorts of Piper products: Tomahawks, Warriors, Archers, Arrows, etc...usually once they go in for their 100 hour or annual, someone lubes whatever the heck is binding and it's smooth as silk again.

I have noticed that binding seems more common on the Pipers I fly than the Cessnas. I only have time in one particular Saratoga, and that one has neve had the problem, although it's generally kept in better shape than the "trainer" Pipers I listed above.

 

[tarp]

That's why I always carry a can of spray silicon and a shop rag in my car.

Piper's are famous for that collar or grommet on the panel where the control wheel slips through getting dried and/or dirty. Having this cleaned and silicon sprayed once each year at the annual is never enough.

First rule: keep the control shaft tubes clean (nice shine). If they are gray or black streaked, you are fighting an awful lot of friction. You can clean with anything, even a dry cloth as long as any cleaning fluid does not get on the grommet/collar.

Better: have a can of silicon spray or a tube of silicon. Spray the tube or use a rag to put some silicon on the tube and then polish it clean. Do NOT use any other kind of lubricant.

Oh and do both control wheel shafts - I had one student that complained. I told him what to do and he said it didn't do anything - went out to his plane - one tube was beautiful and clean, the other looked like the front wheels on my car with all that disc brake dust on them.

If you clean these tubes and still have binding or control force problems get an A & P out there - the next two problems in order are: b.) tail cone screw is loose and binding with stabilator or c.) control cable pulleys are dry and or seizing.

Finally, make sure the autopilot has indeed disconnected - I flew (once) a Cessna with an add-on S-tec autopilot that had kind of a bogus installation (no control wheel disconnect and a hidden/unlabelled circuit breaker). I'm sure glad I used the checklist before takeoff that day.

 

[LXApilot]

Seems to me that I remember doing control checks in the Saratoga before takeoff, and noted that the control surfaces were so big and heavy that the yoke would stick in position if you let it go at the stops. Of course this was on the ground, and the airplane reacted totally different once you were in the air with a great deal of air flowing over it. I agree with the observations of the other guys, and would have to remind you to be on the lookout for control binding in any Piper airplane.