One side of me says I should admit to this but ALL doing DIs on H36 missed it also and I for one should have realised
Let me relate - 25 years ago while doing a check flight with Wendy Medlicott in an ASK 21 at Jindabyne and Wendy said during cockpit checks "Macca I have no right rudder" Got out and on investigating we found the Plastic "beer line" plastic in S tube of rudder had worked its way backwards to the stage where it restricted rudder on one side. It was forced back into S tube and I think we added a bit of lockwire or glue to hold it in place and thought nothing more. Ever since I check the plastic tube in those S tube tubes and have locked the tube in place at front with either lock wire or tie wrap and glue. Come to our Dimona ALL PLASTIC TUBES were fully out of S tube and nobody noticed including me. You could think the tube is there over RH pilots LH rudder cable to protect it shorting out on the battery as people have done. We are on the 3000hly and all cables are replaced but we had broken strands at extreme front end.from rubbing on S without the plastic tube. The reason I thought of this again was Peter Buskins JS1 at Bacchus Marsh and that his S tubes had no beer line in the S tube (gather 5 or 6 JS1s got thru without plastic liner in S tube) and thus the cables at full length (Bruce Taylor owned it for 150 hrs and was set at full length) and S had cut a few strands. >From all this I say those tubes only work back so where they come out of the front they should be locked in some way to stop it happening. Are there other gliders other than h36 and ASK 21 where they work backwards out of the S fitting You can always learn and it is amazing how we look but do not see. I think 3000hly are a good idea (strangly hk36 first inspection is 6000hly) as we also found a problem with one of the mid floating Ball rod end half way out on aileron. The S/s sleeve came out of tailplane as 6mm sharft decided to cease in the s/s. THe 4 ball rod ends holding undercart in place proved difficult to remove and Nigels advise was real helpful as to the holes, especially front holes. Ian McPhee.
