WOW!

I have not checked the landings, but can, but 175 landings is not many. I wonder how long ours had been cracked for? I suspect a long time.

I'm thinking about riveting the doubler to the top most elastomer to keep it centered and to make for easy inspections. I also believe the correct pre-load is very important to keep all the stack up parts free from slack. What ya think?

Yes.
 

Yes, it is important to keep everything tight, otherwise it will hammer away at everything.

Vic

I felt the doubler needed to be fastened in some way. I really think it will move around and beat up the welds at least. I used Hysol when I put it back together. Just a thin coat on the plate and it oozed out nicely all around.

I had another drink, and decided that it would probably be better to put a couple roll pins in the doubler and two locating holes in the plate to keep the doubler centered; hopefully the per-load will keep everything tight.

That was 175 landings and 175 takeoffs on the rough grass field. An equal number or more on hard surface. In my experience on my field, the nosewheel takes a bit of a beating on takeoffs as well as landings. No matter how agressively I get or keep the nosewheel up, it gets hit by irregularities in the runway surface

Though mine was cracked, it looks like it takes awhile. First the plate slowly deforms, then hairline cracks form (I had 2 hairline) and then the cracks slowly open up. Of course I didn't see this actually happen but that's what it looks like.

Looking at pics of a very badly cracked plate, my guess is that the damage will progress until the plate starts to break into pieces.

Again, I think the critical issue is the presence of play between the plate and the elastomers. I set it up once and never checked it again in 3 years. At year 2, I discovered a cracked nose wheel. I can say with certainty that my plane has never landed nose wheel first or otherwise experienced any trauma to the landing gear beyond operations on my home strip.

Just a wrap up email on what it takes to comply with this service bulletin if you have cracking. And you live in Australia??:o

Parts replaced, new rubbers bolts etc $650 - 700approx
Certified welder, to inspect clean and repair $1100
Remove and install engine mount approx 30 man hours say $3300

The reason I post this is far too many people think EAB aviation is meant to be cheap. It is not, and you need to factor in your time. your time is never free. Even if you are retired. It has a value. For me I took days away from my business so I have costed this as my net after tax out of my pocket and not my business charge out rate.

Total cost AUD$5100 or about $4500 in USD.

Most likely still cheaper than a Cirrus or Beechcraft, but its not a poor mans sport!

David,
I realize the elastomers are expensive, plus the additional parts you required, and how you choose to factor the value of your personal time is your business....
But $1100 for inspecting cleaning and repairing the mount? What is the certified welder certified to do... brain surgery? :rolleyes:
If that is the norm over there, maybe I need to to make a change of profession and come on over ( I have always wanted to travel there anyway).
A weld repair was done on the engine mount of N410RV to test the installation. I would estimate that all prep work, welding, and paint touch-up was done in about 4 hours. The welding is actually the quickest part... easily under an hour.
I could really go for a job that allowed me to bill $250+ per hour....

Ahhh Scott, pardon me for poking fun at you, but you are not truly accounting for the job, and this is why people go broke thinking they are charging enough?.but are not.

To answer your question properly, it is true, the land of Oz is one of the most expensive places to do anything. But when you have the certified welder and all the CASA imposed overheads, the insurance overheads, the cost of compliance overheads (CASA and all manner of government overheads - yes we lead the world here :mad: ) it starts adding up.

So I call the guy at Archerfield (1 hrs drive) to come and inspect and make a plan. He also had to knock up the parts from your drawings and then come back a few days later. So that is 4 hours on site as you say (he was 3.5) but account for the two trips, the prep work, the travel plus the setup his gear on site and decamp to leave.

That is about 3 hours plus 6 hours x 110 is about $990 and some materials and parts production, ohh and don't forget the GST (tax) at 10%.

By the way our mogas is USD$5.40 a gallon not $3.10, our restaurants are twice the price and so is real estate??

Come on down! :D

I hope you are not offended by my post as that is not the point. Too many folk expect everything for nothing, and they even expect that of Vans no doubt. Maybe it is a mindset thing but my point is even in ABE?.it is not as free as you might think.

Hope that helps the understanding a bit.

I thiink Dave offers a clear dose of reality to the actual cost of repairs sometimes.

For example when a certain Van's employee made a public statement that the SB mod on the horizontal cracking was no big deal and could be done in a few hours I about blew a gasket! (when I challenged Van's about this they said "a few" is relative number and doesn't really have an exact meaning!) Yea right! My response, I'll gladly bring my aircraft to you for repair if you can do it in a few hours... there were no takers.

I know we have some folks around here that think anything can be done in few minutes (my old boss felt the same way), but in reality, these repair jobs can take much more time than you expect, more offen than not things do not go quite as planned.