REFLECTOR: fixed gear nose wheel

[Mark Magee]

The key on FG gear in-flight nosewheel cant is the torque on the dampener, -after- all else on the shimmy issue have been properly handled. 8lbs pressure on the dampener is all you should need (per Factory): if your too tight and shimmy a little on take off you have a canted rudder. It is critical you run the archive and handle the primary shimmy issue: nose wheel strut bushing, wheel/tire balanced, nose strut alignment. If all those are good, 8 lbs on the dampener is sufficient.

Mark B. Magee
N34XL XLFG
Sent from IPhone 4S

On Mar 17, 2013, at 9:41 AM, velocityxl <velocityxl at fastmail.fm> wrote:

> I had the same experiance except the fairing did not brake off .I did add an extra tail to the front fairing for the same reason you want to. I have had good success with the extra fairing on the back of the front wheel fairing in keeping the front wheel straight
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ron
> 
> Sent from Samsung tablet not an Ipad  Ron
> 
> 
> 
> -------- Original message --------
> From: David Ullman <ullman at robustdecisions.com> 
> Date: 03/17/2013 8:05 AM (GMT-06:00) 
> 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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