The 235 plans didn't call for putting stops just beyond the maximum travel of the rudder pedals, but several builders back in the eighties pointed out that if a rudder cable let go, you would lose your brakes as well. I thought the likelihood of a rudder cable failing was remote, but I glassed in phenolic stops just in case. I'm sure glad I did because today my left rudder cable separated.

I was resuming taxi testing to condition my new brakes. I'd accelerate down the runway to maybe 40 MPH and then brake heavily. I did that several times with absolutely no directional control problems like I experienced 10 weeks ago. The brakes felt good, rudder action was smooth, the engine sounded good, and everything was going swimmingly when the left rudder pedal went to the "floor". The hair came up on the back of my neck and I gently eased off the power and tapped lightly on the brakes. Thank God I still had directional control and brakes! I limped slowly back to the hanger with no problems other then the left rudder pedal resting on the stop.

After shutdown and egress, I looked in the foot-well and the rudder cable had come loose from the turnbuckle - either the cable had pulled out of the nicopress sleeve, or had just broken off. I won't be able to tell until I remove the canopy, upper cowling, and header tank again (sigh). I think someone is really looking out for me by making all these problems present themselves before the first flight!

This photo is out of focus, but the cable seems to have pulled out of the nicopress crimp-sleeve. You can see the 1/4" phenolic stop protruding out from the fuselage and blocking the rudder weldment. Those stops saved me from going off the runway today.