REFLECTOR: Shimmy on landing

[Chuck Jensen]

Christopher,

Are you sure the fellow you were referencing had shimmy, and not
vibration from an out of round and/or out of balance wheel.  Two
entirely different animals.  I suppose the out of balance/round may make
one more susepctible to shimmy (side to side swinging of the nose
wheel), but a shimmy can 'degear' the nose pretty fast on the first, or
after a few events, whereas the out of round problem is highly annoying,
even alarming, but is much less of a gear removal threat than true
shimmy.  IMUO (in my uneducated opinion).

Chuck Jensen


-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Christopher Martin
Sent: Monday, April 10, 2006 1:36 AM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list; Velocity Aicraft Owners
and Builder list
Subject: RE: REFLECTOR: Shimmy on landing

I was surprised that no one mentioned wheel balance.

While it is absolutely required to have proper tension on the bevel
washers
it is also mandatory to balance the nose wheel to prevent shimmy. An out
of
balance wheel will create a peak shimmy at a specific speed and then
diminish. One of our fellow velocity pilots had a significant shimmy
problem which he couldn't correct. He tried everything. I picked up the
nose of the plane and slid a saw horse under it , then spun up the wheel
with a tire spinner, as the wheel spun down it started to shake and then
built into a significant shaking of the whole plane. Not only was it out
of
balance it was also out of round. We replaced the front tire and
balanced
the wheel and tire. It completely eliminated the shimmy. If you don't
have
the equipment, take the wheel and tire over to a tire shop and ask them
to
balance it.

Christopher Martin
christophercmartin at earthlink.net



> [Original Message]
> From: RICHARD J VANDERSTEEN <rvandersteen at sbcglobal.net>
> To: Velocity Aicraft Owners and Builder list <reflector at tvbf.org>
> Date: 4/8/2006 8:49:00 PM
> Subject: REFLECTOR: Shimmy on landing
>
> Any advice on what to check after a shimmy event on
> landing an XL-RG.
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