Landing Gear Support required?

Just finishing up the final touches on a 2+year build of my RV-4.
I have a question for the owner/builder/pilots on this list.
Do the later model "high" gear RV-4's need wooden support inside the fiberglass fairing to dampen shimmy or improve landing characteristics?
Thanks
Ron
N8ZD reserved

maybe....

I have an early RV-4 that I bought w/out the gear leg stiffeners. When I first started flying it, it shimmied all the time. A year later, it never shimmies.
I am not sure what I am doing differently but clearly I have "learned" to avoid the shimmy.

I still plan to add the stiffeners someday but I have moved it a few notches down the project list.

YMMV

John

New Old legs, I don't think it makes a diff

patterson said:

Just finishing up the final touches on a 2+year build of my RV-4. I have a question for the owner/builder/pilots on this list.
Do the later model "high" gear RV-4's need wooden support inside the fiberglass fairing to dampen shimmy or improve landing characteristics?
Thanks Ron N8ZD reserved

Click to expand...

Try to go with out at first. You can always add them later. I never flew the long gear RV-4, but it makes sense it might be slightly more susceptible to shimmy. Regardless of gear length the debate issues are still the same, to stiffen or not to stiffen. Check the archives here, Yahoo RV groups (not just RV-4) and the matronics RV list.

I had the short legs and flew without stiffeners for while. After putting on some substantial stiffeners the plane did feel a little more solid and never shimmed. Don't recall if it shimmed much or at all before the stiffeners where added, since it was a while ago. I do recall when I got going fast on taxi, it would shimmy with out the stiffener I recall, but that was going real fast.

When I say substantial stiffener I mean the biggest piece of OAK I could get under the fairing (leading edge) and bond and fiberglass on for hell and and high tide. The guy who helped me had some carbon fiber tape, so we also bonded three bands of carbon in, one near the top, mid and bottom. If you put a wimpy piece of light pine and don't make an integral connection with some glass, I doubt it will be very effective. You might as well leave it off.

On my RV-4 I had the aluminum gear leg fairings and so it took the extra thickness caused by the fiberglass wrap. The extra bulge of the faining no doubt might be a tad more drag. IT is all a trade off.

You can play with tire pressure and wheel pant balance to reduce shimmy if you get any. If that fails you can than add the stiffener. The stiffener is NOT particularly hard to fab or install, but if you can leave it off, you will save cost, weight and time. I do feel that with the stiffeners you will feel a little more solid ride. This is all subjective your mileage will vary. G

Landing Gear support Required

John, I have an early RV4 and have noticed Tire pressure is extremely critical to avoid shimmy. Set presure at 25 psi and dont taxi fast and shimmy should not be a problem. Roger Moore RV4DRVR