REFLECTOR: fixed gear nose wheel
Stockman, Bill
bill.stockman at daytonaero.com
Sun Mar 17 08:24:00 CDT 2013
I had a front wheel pant (large, longer style) tear apart due to a real bad shimmy episode and left it scattered all over the runway at Columbus, Indiana one saturday afternoon and that was with a front wheel lock installed. I've also blown the front tire on another landing. All happened with the wheel pant on. I have had a few minor problems with shimmy without the wheel pant, but nothing that didn't dampen out.
While checking your repaired wheel pant, don't forget the nose wheel strut. If it's off just a a little bit it will contribute to the shimmy. The longer fin is a good aero idea, but will likely change the wt and balance which may make it worse on the ground.
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From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On Behalf Of David Ullman [ullman at robustdecisions.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2013 9:05 AM
To: reflector at tvbf.org
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: fixed gear nose wheel
I have an SEFG and don't have much of a shimmy problem. Seems to come and
go, and is never very bad. But, a bigger issue occurred last summer. I had
the front faring on and I took off. The plane had a bad yaw that I had not
experienced before. I checked and all the controls were working as they
should. I figured that somehow the front wheel was cocked and acting as a
front rudder. I landed and sure enough, when the front wheel touched down,
I felt a jerk, like the wheel aligning. I taxied back to the hangar and
found the back half of the front faring was missing. The jerk of the wheel
aligning had whipped the fairing so hard that it literally tore off. This
confirmed what happened in flight, I must have skipped to the side just as I
lifted off and the friction was enough to hold the misalignment in place. I
started a search of the airport area for the faring half when I guy pulled
up in truck with a "is this yours?". It was on the runway, luckily he
landed right after me, saw it depart my plane and was able to land around it
and go back and pick it up.
I want to put the front faring back on, but don't want to experience this
again. I think my friction is about right as I can easily steer when taxiing
and don't have much shimmy. First question: anybody else ever experience
this? Second question: I am thinking of putting a rudder on the back half
of the faring. This should give enough aero force aft of the pivot to make
it weather vane should I knock it off center again. It may also add a
little shimmy damping. I would have to beef the connection of the rear half
to the wheel. It should look cool too. Has anyone tried this?
David Ullman
N444DX
President EAA 292
541-754-3609
david at davidullman.com
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