How tight should your vision jet flight controls be? This is a question myself and my pilots were asking on one of the vision jets that we fly and manage. I’ve flown countless vision jets, from G1’s up to brand new G2+ jets. As you know, they all have a slightly different feel when it comes to control pressure and weight.
Our one jet always had a “heavier” feel to it, but it was nothing to be concerned about. A few months back, the controls suddenly took on a much “heavier” feel. During the takeoff roll, the flight control stick would come up to about the center position and then it would hardly move from there. The pilot had to control pitch almost exclusively with pitch trim rather than moving the flight control stick. We also noticed that the autopilot was trimming way more in flight.
We had our maintenance shop take a look at it, and after looking through everything they finally found that a flight control connecting bushing up under the pilot side control stick was too tight, and causing this issue.
I was glad they didn’t give up on looking, as we knew the trend had changed on how the airplane flew. If you ever your vision jet flight controls appear too tight or heavy, mention the connection points under the pilot side control stick.
Happy Flying!