Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bob Pustell on August 26, 2012 at 8:21pm

I have wondered the same thing. However, a lot of Zeniths have flown a lot of years with the plastic block fairleads and not had problems. I will most likely stick with the plans - simple, effective, weighs less. I await input from those who have been flying as to the longevity and reliability of the stock fairleads.

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Permalink Reply by David Gallagher on August 27, 2012 at 11:12am

Brian,

 

Since no one has yet responded about using pulleys, I guess I am going to chime in like Bob did and say the current design is working for me.  4 years, 221+ hours and over 500 landings and I do not have any real nylon fairlead wear to speak of.  Regardless, I check the cable tension by feel prior to every day's flying and with a tension gauge at every oil change.  To date I have never had to re-tension anything in my control system due solely to operational wear.  Since nylon fairleads are only meant for light angles, 7 degrees or less, if I recall, they should not be under a huge wear load. For now I would recommed sticking to the plans.

 

Good luck,

 

Dave

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Permalink Reply by Brian A Manlove on August 27, 2012 at 11:31am

Thanks Bob and Dave!

That's all I need to know, it sounds like it is a complete non-issue and I don't need to waste time thinking or worrying about it.  I was more curious than anything, since I am a complete aircraft newbie.  I've been surfing a lot of different builder sites and other resources, and see a lot of talk about phenolic pulleys, etc. - those are probably meant for much more radical shifts in cable direction.

Brian M.

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Permalink Reply by Don Woodward on March 20, 2015 at 12:23am

I will be making up pulley frames and having pulleise where possable. Wires rubbing on plastic is not for me nor is it ok for Cessna or Piper.   I am building a Ch650B.  I will not be doing any cable fairlead work untill finished fus it needed.

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Permalink Reply by John Austin on March 20, 2015 at 7:10am

Nearly 300 hrs on a 750 and so far I can't detect any wear on the fairleads - controls are nice and smooth!

John

N750A

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Permalink Reply by Mark Maltais on March 21, 2015 at 4:15pm

I've seen a pulley put in the top rear fuselage for the elevator upper cable.  If there was one that was needed it would be there!  I just tensioned up my cables and I don't like the feel of that cable rubbing on anything so I wish I would have put one there.  :(   There was a picture here somewhere of somebody who thought the same and put a pulley in that spot...

Besides that I don't think they would be needed anywhere else, and like everyone else has stated there haven't been any issues that have come up!

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Permalink Reply by Walt Snyder on March 21, 2015 at 5:00pm

I agree, look at how many nylon fairleads a Piper J3 Cub has just on the struts. They've had 65+ years to determine if wear was an issue, so I'm comfortable with that test period. Simple and light.

Walt Snyder

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Permalink Reply by Brian A Manlove on March 21, 2015 at 6:48pm

Yeah, that question was posted a LONG time ago... long before I actually had things built, and it was based on conjecture and not experience. My controls are silky smooth with the original designed fairleads. I did opt for the Viking "steel bungee" however. The only real issue I had was the stiffness of the rudder and now that is also a non-issue.

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Permalink Reply by Don Woodward on February 3, 2018 at 10:37pm

I ended up using the oil fill nylon for the rudder and elevator  cables.     For the wings i used push pull rod, so no wires.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Hill on February 4, 2018 at 8:32am

My take is that even if you are using a pulley to guide the direction of the cables they are in many instances passing thru a relativly small hole in the aluminum skin and would be at least intermittently contacting the aluminum. the nylon fairleads will prevent that and protect the aluminum and the cable.

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Permalink Reply by Gil DeVault on February 4, 2018 at 7:11pm

I went all through this with the A&P that did my conditional. I even went so for as fabricating pulley's for my elevator cables until  my local DAR set them straight. I did make some new fairleads out of 1/4" oil filled nylon from McMaster carr that made everyone happy,, but wasn't really required or needed

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Permalink Reply by William McClain on March 25, 2018 at 9:29pm

I had an IA look at my rudder cables and he recommended using a plastic bushing at the front fairlead hole. Instead I used a 1ft length of brake line over the cable. This slides thru the hole very smoothly and hopefully solves any future problems. 

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