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Touring Motor Gliders Association (TMGA)

Spoiler Replacement


mikeschumann

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Recently the paint on my Phoenix spoilers was peeling due to improper prep work at the factory.  Jim Lee provided a replacement set of blades (under warranty), which my mechanics installed during my 1st annual.

After the blade swap, the spoiler caps no longer sealed properly.  After extensive discussions with Jim and Martin at the factory, I concluded that each spoiler cap was somehow hand finished at the factory to seat properly, and the very minor mechanical differences between the blades was the root of the problem.

Today, I reinstalled the original blades that I had refinished, and once again my caps are a perfect fit.  The lesson is that Phoenix's are built like a Rolls Royce.  The exceptional fit and finish is the result of meticulous handwork at the factory.  The downside of this is that swapping parts can result in slight alignment issues which can be somewhat annoying when it detracts from the perfection that we have come to enjoy in our aircraft.  The bottom line is that if you run into paint issues with your spoilers, you will be much happier if you refinish your original parts rather than getting replacements from the factory.

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I'm assuming the paint problem was on the orange vertical metal blade on each spoiler. What was different between the new and old blades that affected the spoiler cap seating? The blades seem to be free floating, and I wonder where the interference was.

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The paint was peeling on the both spoiler blades on each side.  On my Phoenix, and 2 others that we inspected, the springs on the spoiler cap attachments were so compressed, that for all practical purposes the spoiler cap was rigidly attached to the top spoiler blade.

When I swapped the blades with the replacements provided by Jim from the factory, the spoiler caps no longer seated properly.  The left side in particular was offset about 1/16 ", so that when the spoilers were retracted there was a gap on the outboard end of the cap, and the inboard end of the cap was not flush with the top of the wing.

I had a lengthy discussion with Jim and e-mailed Martin about the problem.  Martin indicated that the spoilers were individually fitted at the factory to ensure that the caps fit properly, and was not surprised that replacing the blades would require some adjustments to get the caps to fit properly.  I concluded that the lowest risk approach to fixing the problem was to repaint the original blades, which I luckily still had.  Reinstalling the blades fixed the problem and I now have perfectly fitting caps again.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi mike

i had the same problem with my left spoiler. Jim sent me a replacement which i installed. It was a perfect fit. Go figure.

george feldman n33gf

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