Immovable ailerons

Hi, Ray. Quite a story, that one about the F-18.

Reminds me of something that happened to me in RVN, although it wasn't nearly as exciting (to anybody but me). I haven't thought about this for many, many years.

I was near the end of one of those long VR missions out of Ben Tre.
Solo, of course. I was rolled into about a thirty-degree left bank in a level turn, but as I started to roll out of the turn, I was alarmed to realize that the stick would not move to the right. I still had normal elevator control, but I couldn't roll. So, I'm thinking to myself, "Hmmmm....this is interesting....I wonder if I've got enough rudder to counteract this bank I'm in when it comes time to try to land."

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what had happened. It's such a simple system.
Do I have some sort of cable/pulley or linkage problem? I began to try a few things, one of which (don't ask me why) was to put in even MORE left aileron, just a little, to see if the stick would move in THAT direction. It would, so now I'm rolled about FORTY degrees to the left, pretty much standing on the right pedal and starting to slip right out of the sky, which is not a real good thing when you start this maneuver at about 1000 feet. Bottom line is that I could get all the left aileron I wanted, but none to the right. The stick was working like some sort of ratcheting device.

I remember thinking that if I HAD to, and if the wind was right down the runway, I might be able to land this thing with just rudder, throttle and elevator, so I decided to go ahead and force the issue. I began to force the stick to the right, very gently. It felt like it wasn't against a hard stop, but rather was acting against a spring of some sort. So far, so good. A little more pressure to the right. Some of the left roll went away. A little more pressure, and a little more....and sproing!...I rolled to the right like a Blue Angel! Past level flight, but only for a second or two. "Oh, hell...what have I done now?" I figured I had broken something.

But I needn't have worried, as it turns out. Everything had somehow returned to normal, and I simply flew back to Ben Tre and landed without any further problem...thank God.

Turns out that a sheet metal screw had got itself lodged between the aileron cable and one of the pullies (just below the floor, behind the left rear leg of my seat). The 'ratcheting' action I had experienced was suddenly and clearly explained...the pulley could turn one way, but not the other!

So, anyway, I thought I'd pass this along so maybe we could keep it from happening to some other hapless Bird Dog driver. I can't recall ever hearing of anything like this happening to anybody else, but I can't imagine that it could be all that rare, either.

Dave Kling