Last fall a friend attempted to remove the wings from his LS4a without disconnecting the L'Hotellier Swivel Joint Connectors. Once he became aware of the mistake, he attempted to disconnect the L'Hotelliers (using fingers only) without reinserting the spar pins. This was partially successful, but 2-3 of the connectors were unyielding to finger pressure. Once the spar pins were reinserted in both spars, the L'Hotelliers readily disconnected with the usual finger force.

Prior to disconnecting the L'Hotelliers, considerable pulling and wiggling from wing tips was done with the help of 'friends'. The control circuit resisted removal of the wings. Another friend came over and noticed that the L'Hotelliers were still connected.

Could this pulling and wiggling have damaged the control circuits? What inspection procedures and tests would you advise? Is it boroscope time? Any weak points to pay special attention? Any prior experiences with similar incidents?

I would begin with putting the glider back together if you can and checking the maximum control deflections with the maintenance manual. And also check for lack of binding and unexpected noises moving the controls. Best to have an engineer sign it off.

It's fairly easy to check the actuators in the fuselage, but you also want to know the actuators inside the wing have not been distorted.

On Friday, March 18, 2022 at 11:23:01 PM UTC-4, georg...@gmail.com wrote:
> I would begin with putting the glider back together if you can and checking the maximum control deflections with the maintenance manual. And also check for lack of binding and unexpected noises moving the controls. Best to have an engineer sign it off.
>
> It's fairly easy to check the actuators in the fuselage, but you also want to know the actuators inside the wing have not been distorted.

Did anyone mention "check lists" ?
John F

I suspect the spoilers were closed and locked which would not allow any lateral movement, otherwise both spoilers and ailerons would have been moving making the mistake obvious! I’d look very carefully at proper spoiler opening and closing with both spoiler caps going flush at the same time with the proper over-center pressure.
I’ll bet we’re all forgot to unhook the controls at one time or other?
JJ

On Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 6:46:42 AM UTC-7, john firth wrote:
> On Friday, March 18, 2022 at 11:23:01 PM UTC-4, georg...@gmail.com wrote:
> > I would begin with putting the glider back together if you can and checking the maximum control deflections with the maintenance manual. And also check for lack of binding and unexpected noises moving the controls. Best to have an engineer sign it off.
> >
> > It's fairly easy to check the actuators in the fuselage, but you also want to know the actuators inside the wing have not been distorted.
> Did anyone mention "check lists" ?
> John F

On Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 10:46:10 AM UTC-4, johnsin...@yahoo.com wrote:
> I suspect the spoilers were closed and locked which would not allow any lateral movement, otherwise both spoilers and ailerons would have been moving making the mistake obvious! I’d look very carefully at proper spoiler opening and closing with both spoiler caps going flush at the same time with the proper over-center pressure.

In addition to other checks, observing left-right symmetry makes sense. For example, if one aileron is neutral and the other one is deflected, something in the control circuits is distorted.