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Originally Posted by justinmg
The discussion continues thread after thread, but this is the real issue.....Has a mark II fork had an incident yet? I have asked the question repeatedly, with no one having knowledge of a confirmed incident.
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Justin, of course it's a very salient question.
It is thought that Vans designed the new MK2 fork (increased rake and clearance) in late 2004 and issued a bulletin on March 10, 2005, declaring that it was being shipped in Finishing Kits.
It might be expected therefore that there will be a reasonable number of RVs (presumably mostly QBs) that are now flying with the MK2 fork. A number of other flying pilots have chosen to retrofit it.
I have been monitoring the RVA nosegear collapse saga very closely for a number of years. Specifically I have monitored virtually all of the major RV forums including the RV Aircraft Builders Group, RVSQN (UK), VansAirforce, Matronics RV Group, RVs_in_Aus (Australia) and Rivetbangers.
To the best of my knowledge there has not been one report of a gear failure involving the MK2 nosegear. Many of the failures reported resulted in photos being published.....again, every published photo has been of a MK1 (old fork rake) nosegear.
The recent (famous for it's pix and video) Croft Farm accident was certainly a MK1 nosegear.
And all of the identifiable nosegears in the photos provided with the recent NTSB report are also MK1.
I would be confident at this stage that no MK2 nosegear has collapsed to date. I would be further confident that it will become public knowledge IMMEDIATELY that one DOES fail.....given the publicity surrounding this issue.
It is too early to draw firm conclusions on the improved action of the new fork, but the early indications are promising. Although there only a modest number out there, you can't do better than 100% success at this time. After all, as the NTSB report has clearly identified....ground clearance is the name of the game....and the MK2 has more of it....so it is logical that it should produce less 'dig-in' failures over time.
My only question is: Why didn't Dick VanG increase the rake, and therefore the ground clearance, even more than he did. After all, many free castoring designs have a significantly higher rake than the Vans MK2. I suspect he could have easily put at least another inch of clearance under the front nut without any problems. Actually, subsequent to the NTSB analysis, I suspect that he might now be thinking that too.