Control Stick Bending

Something I have been putting off for far too long... When I put my panel in I ended up putting some switches and breakers into the standard location that the Aerosport panel has designed. That looks really nice, but after finally having everything rigged, the control stick would contact the switches prior to the stops in the control surfaces making contact. The internet is very helpful as everyone else that has installed the panel has also had a similar issue. (although it sounds like a lot of people just fly like that)

A lot of the solutions involved heating, bending, cutting, welding. So with all of that, I decided to wait in the process to when I had things close to final rig to ensure I knew exactly how much additional clearance I needed. I also ordered two new control sticks as I was assuming it was going to take a couple of different tries in order to get it where I wanted.  

I started with taking my existing control sticks out. I was about to cut them to weld some DOM tube extension but before I went down that path I figured I would just bend them a little to see how things looked. You do not want to bring the stick much more aft as it is already in your lap on full nose up. Also, you don't want to make a bend too low in the stick because (with my short legs) the stick will contact the seat cushion. 

With that, I grabbed a pipe bender from the place I most hate (harbor freight) and with the 1/2" mandrel bent the control stick 5 pumps at a time as high as I could. On the first 5 pumps I could see that it was having a significant impact. By the time I got to 10, the control stick with my custom grips was no longer contacting the switches by itself, but with my hand on the stick I could see myself accidentally flipping all of the switches off on a controls pre-flight check. With 15 pumps on the press you can see how much movement I got (and where I got it). 

At this point I was still thinking I was going to use the control stick as a template and move on to bending the new sticks, but I went ahead and installed them into the plane and everything fit very nicely. I am 5'7" and with the seat all the way forward in the forward most notch of seat adjustment (not where I fly, but the worst case for clearance) the stick came back full nose up and fit very nicely in my lap. I definitely hit the elevator stops before my body. (but I am also 150lbs). With both of the originals bent identically I called it a day as I was not sure I was going to be able to replicate that. Also, the original sticks were match drilled for the control stick horns, and I figured it would be difficult to re-drill the new sticks without enlarging that holes in that part.

Done.