No. 20

November 10, 1994

MAINTENANCE ITEM 14

*** ELEVATOR HORN FITTING ***

By Lee Beery

At the Maintenance Seminar, I was shocked to say the least that the elevator control horn on a certain Varga was to have been replaced back in 1982 per AD note 82-08-04. From what I have been able to dope out, the Varga Corporation sent the owners of this aircraft a steel fitting as replacement for the one made of aluminum. According to Max Bishop, it was determined that the steel fitting was also subject to failure in the same area as the aluminum fitting. The final change, or compliance with AD82-08-04, was to replace the steel fitting with a larger machined aluminum fitting which also used completely different counter balance lead weights, support arms and a support plate. It is not clear to me yet if this change is mandatory for Shinn and Morrisey aircraft. Be advised that the Illustrated Parts Catalog and the Varga Maintenance Manual have illustrations in them for parts (elevator control horn) that cannot legally be used. Because, for the most part, Morrisey, Shinn and Varga parts can be interchanged, I believe that no matter which aircraft you own, you should check AD Notes for all three aircraft as if it was just one aircraft. I know for a fact that AD65-28-05 Morrisey (MLG cracks at scissor attachment) should not apply to our Vargas, but we found cracks.