A little Q

[Guest]

Read On:When these "T-Tail" aircraft are parked, why is the rear elevator and/or the rudder turned or left upright? It makes the aircraft look wierd like in this shot:Click here: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/227521/L/I am a stupid person so can someone explain this to me?

[Guest]

Yeah, why is that? I often see pics of Dash-8s parked like that. Is that just the "neutral" position of the elevator?

[Guest]

I was thinking wind safety but you would think that they would be down if that were the case. Who knows?BobG

[Hornit 3]

Hmmmm, lets see, thats a 717 it looks like. I think the 717, MD95/ MD series all have similar elevator assemblies. Some are hydraulicly powered, most are not. Believe it or not the elevator is flown by the little tabs in the back of the surface. You displace the tab into the windstream, and it moves the surface opposite direction. This is how the MD-88/MD-80 DC-9 series worked. When your on the ground with no relative wind, then it moves on its own. One side can be different than the other too. Next time your at an aiport check the MD-80 series tails out, Lots of folks think they are broken!! Due to one side being up and the other down. The surfaces are free floating until you get some airspeed, when the controls become effective. I think the MD-90 and maybe the 717 have powered surfaces, but once they have been sitting around for a while with no hydraulic pressure they will displace with a good wind. I flew the MD-88 and on a windy day while taxiing, you could actually feel the thumps when the elevator was thrown from one stop to the other, nothing you could do about it...it was desigend that way.Hornit

[Guest]

Yeah, I noticed that.. it does look broken :-)Look at it on this one...http://www.airliners.net/open.file/176404/L/& here...http://www.airliners.net/open.file/036551/L/&here, too...http://www.airliners.net/open.file/037453/L/(Me and my friend sometimes cant tell the difference between the MD-82,83,87,88 so we call them "MD Thingies")Thats pretty interesting though how they are controlled by those tabs. I also noticed the extreme differece between the elevator and the elevator trim. I think its neat though how one side can be high and the other low..:-) Zachary