Yoke Centering Device

[Polmer]

Hello,

I trying to come up with a compact yoke center device for a single yoke.
I have a PVC column with a 90 degree elbow housing for a basic Boeing type setup and my column is centered using two gas springs.

I currently have a rod coming off the yoke axis with a spring pulling down though the column. This does center my current yoke, but im about to mount a much heavier yoke and this setup wont do the job.

I could switch to a heavier spring, but was looking for alternative ideas such as using a gas strut, or something to give the yoke a better feel.

Any ideas/advise?


Regards,

~Polmer

[Westozy]

Hi Polmer,
Sorry I missed this posting, if you email me I will send you sketches of a solution I made for a single yoke set up that centers really well, I have used it on 2 Spitfire flight control columns.

Cheers Gwyn

gwyn737(at)live.com.au

[Bernie]

Hi Polmer,

Also look here for a 14 page PDF instruction for building using Gas Struts.

http://www.737ng.co.uk/Boeing_B737_Control_Column.pdf

Kind Regards

Bernie.

[Atomic_Sheep]

Here's a solution which I saw on someones Airbus Tiller. I tried finding a video of it in action which would make it much more self explanatory but I hope it's clear enough as I couldn't find it.

Solution.jpg

Basically you have the oddly shaped piece of wood or perspex or something attached to the object that is rotating (the yoke in your case) and the 3 springs attached to the object (in your case the vertical thing to which the yoke gets attached to). The only problem that I can see with this would be the size. Not sure how small you can make this for it to work properly. The one on the airbus tiller was quite large but I suppose strong springs will compensate for a size decrease.

[nax228]

Personally I would not have the senterpoint that marked. It is really the same thing with using two gas struts against eachother, but I'm now working on another solution with gas struts.
I have found 2 struts that pull instead of push, and to get enough strength I will mount them both on the same side. The theory is tah the yoke will be pulled back to the nullpoint witch is where the strutts have a direct angle toward the crossbar.
The struts will be mounted on a rotating bolt that when rotating will define the nullpoint. With this I hope to also be able to have the trim action to interact with the yokes position by adjusting the nullpoint.
I have a lot of models made in sketchup and sketchup-physics to simulate the function, but here is one little shot.