REFLECTOR: towbar

[Bachman, Jonathan]

Is that a landing light I see there too?  Any pictures of that you can share?


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Jon Bachman
575 430-9724
N956DR

jonathan.bachman at mtsi-va.com<mailto:jonathan.bachman at mtsi-va.com>
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On Behalf Of Bob Jackson
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2010 10:46 PM
To: 'Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list'
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: towbar


Dave,



Our gear is retractable, so I'm not sure exactly how you might apply what we did.  However, I can tell you that although many Velocity's don't make any provision for it, we have found that adding a standard tow bar male 'tang' arrangement to our nose gear leg has been an invaluable feature.



Moving the plane around in a crowded hangar at home, or when you're traveling, it has been 'priceless' for us to be able to use a standard small Cessna type 'manually' controlled tow bar, or one of the big orange ones (common at most FBOs) to move our plane around.



It might be more essential because our Velocity is so heavy, but when we have a full load of fuel (93 gals), it is very difficult to move our plane around -- either trying to push up small inclines, or for tight maneuvering because with full fuel it is essentially impossible to pick up our nose to make tight turns (unless you enjoy hernias!).



My aircraft partner designed (with some ME help) and had fabricated the tow bar adapter shown below, as it is attached to the top of our nose gear fork.  This is the front view.  It is also important (as I'm sure you would appreciate) that the extra weight of the 'tangs' is on the back side of the fork -- for anti-shimmy reasons.



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