REFLECTOR:Nose Gear Shimmy
Chuck Jensen
reflector@tvbf.org
Wed, 6 Aug 2003 09:38:49 -0400
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A few weeks ago, the nose wheel shimmy issue was fleshed out on Reflector.
I have a little experience I wanted to relate.
After OSH trip, I made a side trip to MN-IA-SD-NE. During the MN to IA
phase, I noticed the DG had drifted so I reset it. Then it drifted again.
How odd I thought until I checked the vacuum gauge which was hanging dead at
6:00 position. Finished the VFR flight and, being a native Hawkeye, knew a
good airport to land for repair. While he was changing it out, I fussed
over the plane including putting air in all three tires to bring them back
up to pressure...the nose gear tire was certainly a little soft.
As is good practice, I decided to take it up for a test hop before parking
it for departure the next morning. The mounful look on the AP earned him an
invite to go with around the patch. As we touched down and the nose wheel
settle in, the dreaded "shimmy" started. I lifted the nose, thought about
it a second, and decided to let the nose down again. Same result.
Gave it throttle and lifted the gear....but the nose gear light did not
clear. The AP said there was no grass on the field but I remembered a
neighboring airport that had a grass strip for crop dusters. Flew over
there and dropped the gear...two greens, thankfully, landed and let air out
of front tire. Went back to original airport and landed without incident.
Moral of the story? It may be that too much air pressure in the front tire
makes it "hard" and contributes to nose wheel shimmy. This is probably not
news to 98% of you, but for the rest of us 2%, it's worth keeping in mind.
Chuck
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=951294712-06082003>A few
weeks ago, the nose wheel shimmy issue was fleshed out on Reflector. I
have a little experience I wanted to relate.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=951294712-06082003></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=951294712-06082003>After
OSH trip, I made a side trip to MN-IA-SD-NE. During the MN to IA phase, I
noticed the DG had drifted so I reset it. Then it drifted again. How
odd I thought until I checked the vacuum gauge which was hanging dead at 6:00
position. Finished the VFR flight and, being a native Hawkeye, knew a good
airport to land for repair. While he was changing it out, I fussed over
the plane including putting air in all three tires to bring them back up to
pressure...the nose gear tire was certainly a little soft.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=951294712-06082003></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=951294712-06082003>As is
good practice, I decided to take it up for a test hop before parking it for
departure the next morning. The mounful look on the AP earned him an
invite to go with around the patch. As we touched down and the nose wheel
settle in, the dreaded "shimmy" started. I lifted the nose, thought about
it a second, and decided to let the nose down again. Same
result.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=951294712-06082003></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=951294712-06082003>Gave
it throttle and lifted the gear....but the nose gear light did not clear.
The AP said there was no grass on the field but I remembered a neighboring
airport that had a grass strip for crop dusters. Flew over there and
dropped the gear...two greens, thankfully, landed and let air out of front
tire. Went back to original airport and landed without
incident.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=951294712-06082003></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=951294712-06082003>Moral
of the story? It may be that too much air pressure in the front tire makes
it "hard" and contributes to nose wheel shimmy. This is probably not news
to 98% of you, but for the rest of us 2%, it's worth keeping in
mind.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=951294712-06082003></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=951294712-06082003>Chuck</SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
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