I think that the concerning issue is your response time on the flaps. Almost everyone who owns a contest sailplane has been here and failed to retract the flaps in time. I use carbon push rods as do most of the contest pilots these days. I don't think there is an obviously less damaging choice between carbon or metal push rods.
The fact is that if you fail to pull up the flaps you should expect damage in one form or another and its usually in the flap linkage connections. I would not expect a reprieve from this damage in your choice of push rod material. Use an elastic on your flap stick if you can't get into better form on your flaps. On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 6:36 PM, Michael Whitman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I haven't had first hand experience with carbon pushrods but I would guess > that you could also run the risk of stripping a servo with a stiffer linkage > if you failed to retract the flaps on landing again. It's cheaper to > replace or fix the pushrod instead of a wing servo. > Mike > > > On Apr 3, 2008, at 2:56 PM, Robert P Buxton wrote: > Open Question to the group: Has anyone had experience (good or bad) with > using carbon fiber push rods for their aileron & flap servo linkage. This > past season, due to slow thumb response at that critical moment of > retracting flaps just before touch down, I was bending the flap push rods > (bottom hinged, linkage on top of flap, servo arm on bottom of wing. Carbon > fiber rods would give stiffness/rigidity but would they be prone to > breakage? This set up was/and is on a F3J 144" Shadow. All comments and > suggestions would be greatly appreciated. > > Regards, > > Robert > > *Robert P Buxton > **CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email message, including any attachments, > is intended only for the use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain > information that is privileged, confidential and prohibited from > unauthorized disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended > recipient of this message, any dissemination, distribution or copying of > this message is strictly prohibited. If you received this message in error, > please notify the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the > original message. > > * > >
