I have a slightly warped airbrake which sits properly throughout 85% of its span, but then proud of the surface for the outboard 15%. Only five mm high at the very end, but it bothers me. Three fixes come to mind - I could grind it thinner, bringing it down to the surface of the wing. I could mount another closure spring at that end. Even a little closure force is sufficient. I could weight it into form as it sits in the hot sun this summer, maybe even paint a black topcoat, and see what it gets (?).
Two questions; Does anyone have a better idea ? Has anyone replaced their closure springs ? I did on both wings, and it isn't perfect - the common springs from the hardware store are close to yield when airbrake is fully open, and don't provide much closure force when airbrake is shut, i.e. if I flip a wing upper surface down the airbrake will hang open just a little. Perhaps the much more powerful airbrake closure spring isn't adjusted properly to compensate for wear at the junction of the ball and pin drive on the wings and the torque drive tube slots in the airbrake drive tube in the wing root. Any and all thoughts would be much appreciated.
