Robert18

Experienced extreme flutter in the elevator. Would anyone no what the problem would be and can anyone suggest a good maintenance person in or around waycross, ga

rickair7777

Are there elevator balance weight(s) missing? That could cause flutter.

Robert18

Yes we checked the counter weight. Also held the yoke and had someone move the elevator up and down

Cubdriver

There's a lot of energy in an airstream at 150 mph. A small mechanical slack in the flight controls can find and excite a frequency of oscillation as you experienced. Flutter is a divergent oscillation where air loads oppose one another around an axis of flexibility such as a hinge rod or a wing spar. The frequency is high, and if stress limits are reached by a component the cycling can quickly lead to ultimate stress and breakage. That's when everybody without a parachute perishes or else things get pretty exciting, so I am glad you are ok.

Did you do anything to see if you could alter the flutter? Some things you could have tried might have been speeding or slowing (additional speed might have changed the frequency), trim setting, moving stuff around in the cabin to change CG, or change air densities by changing altitude.

Also, are you sure there was no ice on the tail? Air pockets can be colder than predicted, and flying through cold visible moisture is always a risk. If the tail picked up ice/ frost you might not know it, and it might change the frequency of oscillation enough to make flutter occur. Most likely the slack in the flight controls was there for some time.

Deckair

No ice. Noticed the flutter after take off from Amg leveled off at 1500 pulled power back to 21 inches flutter got a little worse immediately turned direct to waycross. Ran the trim up and down to see if it could be in the trim, no change. Auto pilot master was off also. Upon landing 1st flap made the elevator flutter worse short final full flaps the whole aircraft shook. We're trying to find a maintenance person to look at the plane, there is no one around waycross. Flying the plane somewhere is not an option

rickair7777

Or maybe not if a bell crank, tensioner, or pulley is coming loose...that could lead to total loss of control.

I have significant Aztruck time (much of it in Wx) and never experienced any flutter. Not normal...don't change your mind about grounding the plane.

FlyJSH

Spot on post about the Aztruck.

Above all, whatever you fly, DON'T GET INTO AN AIRPLANE UNLESS YOU HAVE COMPLETE CONFIDENCE IN IT! The result will either be a "hanger story" or your epitaph.

(and I am not a fraidy cat that baulks at every MEL)

Left Handed

Did the door pop open or was the door cracked at all? The disruption to the slipstream is enormous when this happens, and feels like elevator flutter. Slower speeds tend to make it worse. Even just an inch or two is enough for this to happen. Also as above, make sure all cables are tight. The stabilator is susceptible to this. Good luck.

Grumble

That airplane is hard down until an A&P does a complete integrity inspection on the emp. and checks all the control rigging. You're lucky... flutter usually destroys a/c.

rickair7777

Yeah, that too. Especially right after takeoff.