REFLECTOR: Front Shock/ Tire Pressure

[Rene Dugas]

Closest I've come to being killed in a plane is low nose gear tire
pressure.  I had been flying aerobatics in a super decathlon all day
when the instructor decided he wanted to fly my Velo.  He weights over
250#'s.  I was experimenting with tire pressure and it was about 15 to
20 #'s.  The runway was 3000 ft.  The nose would not lift because the
nose went down about 2 inches on takeoff run.  It finally lifted at 85
knots and I cleared the trees by less that 20 ft.  I was also full of
fuel.  Density altitude was not the primary problem in Louisiana
although it was over 90 degrees.  Recommend over 30 #'s and think about
the nose drop with loading.

Rene'

 

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of KMis178813 at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 8:27 PM
To: reflector at tvbf.org
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Front Shock/ Tire Pressure

 

   I was trying to soften the landings some years back and had the
brilliant idea (BRILLIANT I say) to lower all the tire pressures. All of
them to 30 lbs. , it worked great with one person on board.  UNTIL  high
density altitude day, 95 degrees F and at gross weight. Used most of a
6000 ft runway before I bounced the plane in to the air to get rid of
the rolling resistance from the tires. Be careful how low you try to run
the pressures. Later testing found that weight vs. tire pressure really
changes takeoff distance. 

           

                                                     Ken Mishler N2087M
SUV IO360 MT

                                                     XLRG-5 under
construction TIO540





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