Control stick soft grip

Happened to stumble across the facebook post about the poor fellow who crashed his Decathlon when the grip fell off. Here are the pics:

grip.webp

decathlon.webp
 
That's sad. What kind of death grip do you suppose is necessary to yank the grip off the stick? My buddy hangs on so tight the rubber grip works itself loose and goes down the stick. I gave up on the Pliobond - he easily overcame that.

I opened the thread hoping to find an inexpensive source of grips - all of mine are dying, especially on the duty bicycle.
 
Bob Turner said:
That's sad. What kind of death grip do you suppose is necessary to yank the grip off the stick? My buddy hangs on so tight the rubber grip works itself loose and goes down the stick. I gave up on the Pliobond - he easily overcame that.

I opened the thread hoping to find an inexpensive source of grips - all of mine are dying, especially on the duty bicycle.
Click to expand...

Worst part is, the poor guy had just bought it a week earlier and was on a coast-to-coast XC trip taking it home.

He speculated that it worked it's way up the stick over a period of years, until it was just barely hanging on. It popped off when he was 5 or 6 feet in the air and nose dived before he could recover. Clearly he was improperly trimmed. Mine rotates with about 1 fingertip of back pressure, light as a feather.
 
Plenty to choose from here:
www.gripworks.com

Injection Molded Plastic Hand Grips Manufacturer - GripWorks

GripWorks manufactures a complete line of plastic hand grips including injection molded grips in straight, tapered, ribbed, and finger nub styles.
www.gripworks.com www.gripworks.com
Although I’m trying to find out if I can order just one or two. Once I find out I’ll update this post.

Here is what I ordered from Amazon. Got two for a bargain price. They are virtually identical to the white originals and I kinda like the red color.

Here is a picture of the small aluminum switch plates that support the mic button. I have to change forward button as it is now intermittent and I can't seem to remove the old grip without resorting to cutting it off the stick.

All in all, quite pleased that I could keep it more or less "stock," make it prettier and have a functioning mic button again.
 

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The experimental I bought has 6-switch grips like this, front and back, front has PTT only and rear has PTT and smoke on/off, the rest of the switches are dead and the grips feel like cheap plastic.
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I'm planning on replacing them with rubber mountain bike grips, something like this
1725478268410.png

I used to put grips on with hairspray, never had one come off and I thrashed my BMX bike pretty good.
 
One of the Stearman guys decided it best to equip both cockpits with one of those fancy pickle deals. Trigger for intercom, button for tower. I really like the guy, and respect the grand it took to do away with the rubber deals with a single switch (intercom button on the panel).

My airplanes get the rubber grips above. Not terribly expensive, and I machine an aluminum switch holder for the top. Will try hairspray next time! Good idea!
 
Gripworks bought the Hunt-Wilde corporation, who made the finger groove grips that are on my ‘79. They also happen to be the same exact 1” diameter grips that are on my hand truck.

Gripworks directed me to a distributor for ordering a couple grips but I never got an answer as to whether they are the exact same as the former.

I’ve been trying to find some NOS Hunt Wilde 1” finger grooves for a while on eBay. Rare item. 7/8” - all day, but 1” ain’t.
 
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