The rudder cables emerge from the teleflex in the nose cone and are connected to the rudder pedals by an alloy bracket. The pedal is then fastened to the floor by means of a hinge. It was recently pointed out to me on the annual permit inspection that half of the right-hand hinge pin was missing.

On further investigation it was found that the hinge pin does in fact comprise of two halves pushed into the hinge from the two outer edges where it is an interference fit. The outer half of the pin was missing in my case and has not been found. There is just enough space between the outer end of the pin and the inside of the nose cone for the pin to come out and fall into the depths of the unknown.

After much cursing and attempts at doing yoga for a whole day I finally replaced the offending hinge with a new one. I rigged to check that all was well and whilst I was facing down hill and holding it on the brakes there was a sudden bang under my left foot and I found myself going round in ever decreasing right-hand circles! To my horror I found that the rudder cable bracket at the pedal had snapped in half. Boy, am I glad I was on the ground.

Further investigation revealed that this bracket should be free to spin on the pedal so that the bracket can be pulled in line with the cable no matter what the pedal position is. The right bracket was indeed free to spin but the left one was done up tight on the bolt.

It seems that whilst I was replacing the right hinge, I inadvertently moved the left bracket out of line of the cable and when I operated the left rudder pedal, the cable pulled on the bracket which broke instead of swiveling. It took remarkably little pressure to snap this bracket which was duly replaced, making sure that it was free to spin!

I have been told that these faults are unheard of but the proof is in the pudding, so beware!

Source: John Anderson