Ooooh, ooooh that smell

Jeff Vaughan · #1 03-01-2009, 07:17 PM

Can't you smell that smell
I am stumped. On the last half a dozen landings or so just as I pull off of on to the taxi way I smell an odor of burnt rubber. Like a car tire burn out smell. It lasts a few minutes and then it is gone. My passengers have smelled it too. I have taxied back to the hangar,jumped out , sniffed around thre cowl , in the oil door, but no rubber smell. I have taken the cowl off and can not find anything that looks as if it is causing the smell. I have a very normal engine set up. TMX-0360, with Lightspeed and mag. Baffles are clear of all moving parts. The smell started around the 40 hour mark. The only rubber I have under the cowl is some auto fuel line that protects the throttle cable and miture cable plus the Lightspeed crank sensor wire. No obvious burns or melting. Strange that it goes away as quickly as it comes.

Anyone else experience this?

aerhed · #2 03-01-2009, 07:25 PM

Check your tire pressure & gear fairing openings. Extra weight may be burning your sidewalls a little on smackdown.

Jeff Vaughan · #3 03-01-2009, 08:00 PM

Have smelled the wheel pants at landing but no odor. However you may be on to something here. I did install the wheel pants not so long ago. Did take them off today and inspected them,No obvious indication of rubbing. I think I will enlarge the openings alittle. Can't hurt. Tire pressures: Nose 30 , Main 35

frankh · #4 03-01-2009, 08:03 PM

Are you using the brakes and confusing the smell maybe?

Frank

Jeff Vaughan · #5 03-01-2009, 08:09 PM

Do aircraft brakes smell like car and truck brakes? If so I do not believe I am confusing the two. If they do smell like rubber why isnt everyone experiencing the rubber smell?

Randy · #6 03-01-2009, 08:15 PM

I say track it down. In my experience every new smell or sound is coming from somewhere and it could be important. At least mine have been but I have a very non standard engine setup and have had to chase down my share of bugs. They can be elusive but rewarding to find and you know you have solved a potential problem.

Randy C

Bryan Wood · #7 03-01-2009, 08:17 PM

Any chance that it is your shoes? Is your heater on?

tomwebster · #8 03-01-2009, 08:36 PM

I get a rubber smell from the tires
spinning up when landing. I touch
down at a slower speed now and the
smell doesn't seem as bad.
The tire smoke must come up the
gear leg fairings like a chimney.
You could seal up the leg fairing
if you want. Taking off the wheel
pant should also eliminate the smell
if you want to verify the source.

Tom

bhester · #9 03-01-2009, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomwebster

I get a rubber smell from the tires
spinning up when landing. I touch
down at a slower speed now and the
smell doesn't seem as bad.
The tire smoke must come up the
gear leg fairings like a chimney.
You could seal up the leg fairing
if you want. Taking off the wheel
pant should also eliminate the smell
if you want to verify the source.

Tom

Is it a tricycle gear? If so then you have cut outs for the gear legs. Did you seal those cut outs around the gear legs with proseal? I haven't ever smelled rubber. My gear leg opening are sealed. Just a thought!

MNAv8or · #10 03-01-2009, 09:20 PM

This might be a dumb question, but are you on the brakes at all when you touch down? I have run into the same problem on certified aircraft and what I tracked it down to was the owner was on his brakes at touchdown. When the wheels would touch they would actually spin on the rim of the tire. This went on for a while to the point where valve stem actually pulled out of the wheel as the tube rotated with the wheel. This might be the issue.

If you only smell it on touchdown then I would go with it is something with the wheels/tires. If you said that you had just installed the wheelpants not that long ago, take them back off and go fly, does the smell come back.

I have run into a lot of aircraft that have a problem, and then after 3 or 4 hours of troubleshooting the pilot/owner says the typical "o yeah I was fiddling with this or that the other day". If you have recently changed something on your aircraft and have an issue that doesn't seem like it would relate, go to the thing you changed first. It may save you a lot of curse words and head scratching..