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nosewheel - going to 1200 hrs

A5555

Well Known Member
anti-splat nosewheel at 1000 hrs. - revised change, it's now planned to go to 1200 hrs.

approximately 350 hrs on the mains. air pressure on the mains = 50 psi. air pressure on the nose = 55 psi. it will settle back during the upcoming colder weather.

when you grease the nosewheel fork, move it along the complete travel, applying grease at the extremes.

airing the tires, getting ready for put-in-bay to meet the annual migration of black haired Polish women coming from Cleveland and Toledo. throw in a tux for the wine tasting event.

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you can expect this minor wear with the RVBits fairings. I like them.

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Looks like it's (past) time to change all of them if you ask me :eek:
 
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I may have realized something today

My left main is worn more than my right main tire. I typically land RW 29 with wind from my left so it's natural that my left main comes down first. the question I had is why the left tire is worn so much more than the right and now I believe I know why. it's not the touch down force that causes the tire wear, it is the alignment with the runway. the first tire to touch does all the work to align the aircraft with the runway. the second tire to touch has an easier task. it's the side force that causes the majority of the wear.

also today, with a mild left crosswind I was able to add some left rudder just before touchdown, 1/2 second, to shift the touch down to the right side tire. I would not be able to do it with a hard left wind. perhaps that will even my tire wear some.
 
You might want to consider rotating the mains, left to right. If wearing on the inboard, put the side more worn on the outboard side when rotating them.
 
yeah, I might do that after awhile but first I want to understand if landing on the right hand side tire first shifts the wear to that tire. I am thinking that the first wheel down has the job of aligning the aircraft with the runway so it gets most of the side load and the wear. even with a mild left crosswind I think I have found a method to put the right wheel down just before the left.
 
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Tires

I agree with Walt, going for a record will seem trivial when you get a flat on a landing. False economy.
Dave
 
not a record, I am sure some nosewheels have gone farther. this is testing of the wear characteristics for the mains now. the goal is to make the right hand side tire look like the left hand side by landing technique alone.
 
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beats me as to what the amount of assumed flight hours got to do with the wear of whatever part of your landing (guess take-off too) gear...
The usual reference to this day was the number of cycles, e.g. one take-off followed hopefully by one landing, + any amount of wear maneuvers such as taxi, equaling a cycle.

Good things my tires don’t wear whilst airborne. Yet...
 
My left main is worn more than my right main tire. I typically land RW 29 with wind from my left so it's natural that my left main comes down first. the question I had is why the left tire is worn so much more than the right and now I believe I know why. it's not the touch down force that causes the tire wear, it is the alignment with the runway. the first tire to touch does all the work to align the aircraft with the runway. the second tire to touch has an easier task. it's the side force that causes the majority of the wear.

also today, with a mild left crosswind I was able to add some left rudder just before touchdown, 1/2 second, to shift the touch down to the right side tire. I would not be able to do it with a hard left wind. perhaps that will even my tire wear some.


I would recommend getting some time in a tailwheel aircraft to help understand that you should be the one to align the aircraft and not have the wheel straighten it out for you. You should not have any sideloading. You should always land on the upwind wheel first, and not trick the plane to land on the downwind wheel while compensating with rudder just to even out your tire wear. Thats just not good airmanship. When landing in a crosswind, you need to cancel out the X-wind component with the exact same amount of horizontal lift from a low wing, and rudder to align the longitudinal axis to the runway centerline.
 
I would recommend getting some time in a tailwheel aircraft to help understand that you should be the one to align the aircraft and not have the wheel straighten it out for you. You should not have any sideloading. You should always land on the upwind wheel first, and not trick the plane to land on the downwind wheel while compensating with rudder just to even out your tire wear. Thats just not good airmanship. When landing in a crosswind, you need to cancel out the X-wind component with the exact same amount of horizontal lift from a low wing, and rudder to align the longitudinal axis to the runway centerline.

yes, you state the proper technique. no argument.

what I am trying to learn how to do is not standard and can be tricky. say the mild crosswind is from the left and you are slipping the aircraft to the left to align with the runway but just before touchdown you slip the aircraft to the right and touch on the right wheel. this needs to be done before the aircraft has a chance to accelerate to the right because that's what it will do if you are too high. you need to judge the aircraft height well so that the right hand side tire comes down first and then the left tire immediately and then hold the ailerons to the left as you would normally do on rollout. I learned not to jerk the controls or it gets goofy but it is more of squeeze the controls movement. I don't know if it will work for the tire wear, it is just a test. be sure to have enough runway to go around if it gets ugly. I repeat, this is not proper technique. do not try this at home.
 
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Crosswind landing technique

Tires are cheap.

Runway excursions are not.

Steve, your proposed landing technique is, in my opinion, a disaster waiting to happen. It goes against all the training I've ever received, or given.

Please reconsider.

Land the airplane on the centerline, aligned with the runway, and with no side-drift. Works every time. That means in a crosswind, you will land on the upwind main tire every time. But you won't be "scrubbing" the tire sideways.
 
Treadwear
Inspect treads visually and check remaining tread. Tires should be removed when tread has worn to the base of any groove at any spot, or up to 1/8 of the tire circumference.

If the tire is worn to the base of the grove at any spot then the grove would not be visible...Steve's nose tire picture clearly shows the visibility of all the groves, albeit faint. The nose tire wear rate is minuscule compared to the mains...I could see these tires going another year if the mains are flipped.

Goodyear manual also states the ability to fly the aircraft to repair if the wear exceeds the grove (such as accidentally flat-spoting a worn tire), so I don't understand rush to change them? Help me understand?
 
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thank-you. I dropped it in on the RHS tire today with a left crosswind. I'll monitor the tire wear.

Put-in-Bay was a blast last night with lots of friendly women. People are in a good mood there. Weather cut my wine fest adventures short. **** those weather guys that keep updating as the minutes go bye, getting worse at home...and then getting worser at home..... I suppose they do the best they can. I'm definitely on for next year. I like it when all the kids are gone and just the mature ladies remain. they come from far and wide, like Pittsburg :).

surrounded by hundreds of square miles of fresh water.

you need to have you act tuned up to get into that runway. 2900 feet with tall trees at both ends, but it is worth it because the women are on island time.

kick back and stretch out on the way home because, you earned it.

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*********

Port Clinton on the way out.

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