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Nose gear collapse

C

Coryb

Member
I have a 2010 RV-9. It has 1200 hrs. It is new to me. I have 20 hrs in it. I keep it in an old hangar that has an opening that gives me 1 inch of clearance at the tail. I always take it in and out of the hangar very slowly, almost coming to a stop when I get to the tail as I take it out. When I brought it back from my last flight, I went to put it in the hangar and the tail was about 1 inch too high. My first thought was that the tire on the nose was low. It was not.

On my last flight I flew it to St George, Utah with my wife. I am based in Spanish Fork, Utah. When I was there I noticed one of the main gear tires looked low so I checked it and it was low. I put air in it and decided to check the air in the other tires. I use a valve extender through a hole in the wheel pants. When I unscrewed the extender on the nose wheel part of the valve stem had broken off in the extender and of course the tire went completely flat.

Since I was at my own airport and did not have tools I had the mechanic at the FBO fix it. I was not there when he ordered the valve stem and pulled it into his hangar to fix it.

Here's my question. Is there a chance the nose gear was bent when he took the plane into his hangar to fix it? I can't think of any other reason my tail would be higher. No hard landings. ????
 
Take the fairing off the nose leg gear.
put a straight edge onto the nose leg
is is straight? Not? Post Photo.
 
Coryb said:
yes but I can't imagine how the mains would raise. Maybe over inflated tires? They're both good.
Click to expand...

You stated that you added air to one of the mains. Because of the "arm", raising the main 1" will probably raise the tail 2".
 
Lowering the nose tire will also raise the tail. Have you checked what pressure the mechanic inflated it to? I would be very surprised if the nose gear is bent.
Either way - you are playing with fire. You need a different set-up, or you are going to eventually wack your tail. It does not take much bounce to make the tail raise 1"
 
I might suggest building a small ramp for your nose wheel. Raising the nose wheel just a little (Maybe just a piece of 2X lumber) will give you much better clearance at the tail.

Or....You could fix it right and move that smaller wheel back to the tail!
 
With that small amount of clearance, ship weight becomes a question too. The mains will spread a little if the airplane is heavier - your tail will sit higher or lower depending on the fuel in the tanks and weight in the baggage compartment. That's a plus/minus of 200+ pounds, that's enough to make a difference. Were you putting the airplane away with a very light fuel load?
 
Weight on tail

A friend of mine had an RV8A and he would hang about 30 lbs on the tail ring so we could push down the tail and walk the plane into his hangar. That might give you a little more clearance.

-Andy
 
Mel said:
I might suggest building a small ramp for your nose wheel. Raising the nose wheel just a little (Maybe just a piece of 2X lumber) will give you much better clearance at the tail.

Or....You could fix it right and move that smaller wheel back to the tail!
Click to expand...

I agree with Mel that a small ramp to run the nose gear up on will help.
I don’t agree with Mel’s second statement.
 
pa38112 said:
Lowering the nose tire will also raise the tail. Have you checked what pressure the mechanic inflated it to? I would be very surprised if the nose gear is bent.
Either way - you are playing with fire. You need a different set-up, or you are going to eventually wack your tail. It does not take much bounce to make the tail raise 1"
Click to expand...

I built a ramp with a 3/4 in plywood. it went from not making it by one inch to having about 1 inch of clearance. I also tried the weight method that was suggested. 45 pounds gave me 2 inches of clearance.

With a half full tank I was 2 inch from clearing. When I filled the tank. I could barely clear.

By the way I have plans into the city to rebuild the hangar. I'm going from an 8 ft door to a 12 foot door.

Does anyone think that my nose gear could have bent? What is the surest way to know?
 

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I am sure the nose gear did not bend, it would take some serious fore to bend it.
I did notice that the correct nose gear fairing bracket hardware is either missing or incorrectly installed on the axle bolt. With the correct hardware installed the purpose of the slots in the bracket are so you can take out the one hex bolt on the forward end and the whole wheel pant slides off with the bracket attached.
 
Or maybe he unbolted (4) the wheel pants from the bracket and attached it back to the leg so we could see what the bracket looked like? ;) Seriously I've seen more than one new owner do this. Somehow irresistible to remove the 4 bolts on each side and then expand the wheel pants over the bracket. (Painted wheel pants get repainted this way)
 
Noticed you had Berringer wheels. They sell a nice device to go inside the rims to since air pressure (SensAIR). Works really well. (Not cheap) My wheel pants don't have holes for checking the pressure as yours does and I was not very diligent about pulling off the pants to check the pressure. Just FYI.
 
Walt said:
With the correct hardware installed the purpose of the slots in the bracket are so you can take out the one hex bolt on the forward end and the whole wheel pant slides off with the bracket attached.
Click to expand...

:eek: My life has been a lie! Why in the Sam heck did I not think of that.
 
How are you Pushing?

If you’re applying any downward pressure on the tow bar or nose of the aircraft, the tail is pivoting upward. Get a 5 gallon orange pail from Home Depot, fill it with concrete and imbed an eyebolt in the top. Set the bucket on a furniture dolly and you should have a tail weight that will roll in/out with your plane.
Terry, CFI
RV9A N323TP
 
Mel said:
I might suggest building a small ramp for your nose wheel. Raising the nose wheel just a little (Maybe just a piece of 2X lumber) will give you much better clearance at the tail.
Click to expand...

The prior owner of my hangar had a Malibu and the only way he could get it in was the method described by Mel, & obviously is the reason I own the hangar now.
 
I had a hangar for a while where the door opening height was too low for the vertical stab on my RV-7A. I took a 24” long 2x6 and beveled each end to a 45 degree angle to make a bit of a ramp at each end. When pushing the plane into the hangar, I would stop a foot or so before reaching the door opening, lay the 2x6 just behind the nose wheel, push the nose wheel up onto the board, which caused the vertical stab be lowered enough to pass beneath the door opening header. After the vertical stab was safely inside, the nose wheel would reach the other end of the 2x6 causing the nose wheel to go down to the pavement and the vertical stab to rise up. The plane was parked with all three tires on the hangar floor. To remove the plane from the hangar, I’d reverse the process, except that the 2x6 was placed ahead of the nose wheel a foot or so before the vertical stab would impact the door opening header. I didn’t damage the plane at all using this process because I purposely made sure to avoid being in a hurry.
 
Might want to check the fit of the nose gear leg

I'm surprised no has mentioned the possibility of the nose gear leg being loose in it's socket [in the engine mount]. With 1200 hours on the plane, it's a possibility. This would allow the nose wheel to move forward slightly when backing the plane into the hanger. That would change the angle and lower the nose. I suggest you get the nose wheel off the ground. Grab the gear leg and see if there is any play between the leg and it's mounting socket. This is a well known issue on some tricycle gear planes.

https://vansairforce.net/community/showthread.php?t=98104
 
thanks

I've got a few things to check now. I have a way to get it in and out of the hangar also. The city has told me and a few other hangar owners on the field that we need to have building permits to build new hangars by the end of the year. I knew this was coming when I bought the hangar. My new hangar wil have a 12 ft opening. Thanks for all the help!
 
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