It looks to me like your nose strut started to fold back on you - if so then you were very close to a nose-over. Do you have any type of after-marked front axle ?
Mike Seagar insist's on keeping the nose up until the airspeed has completely dropped forcing the nose gear down and then maintain full back pressure on taxi. It is a taxi gear only and not a Cessna config.
Definite road rash
That's usually an indication of a poor landing of a Vans nose gear. It happens when the technique is lacking. Please try not to repeat this if possible since the nose gear isn't designed for this. The nose gear should be treated like a toothpick and the plane treated like a Tailwheel with stick in lap. Good technique will result in nice nosewheel pant. Bad technique results in ugly pant, possibly bent gear.
Remove pant, fix, reinstall, and do better job grasshopper. It happens sometimes, just learn from it.
It looks to me like your nose strut started to fold back on you - if so then you were very close to a nose-over. Do you have any type of after-marked front axle ?
Mike Seagar insist's on keeping the nose up until the airspeed has completely dropped forcing the nose gear down and then maintain full back pressure on taxi. It is a taxi gear only and not a Cessna config.
Definite road rash
Yes, I agree and that is how I land my aircraft. I still get it. I've got to start looking at more closing and try to identify exactly when it happens.
Matco Axle is installed!
I don't see a bad landing causing the tire to deflect enough to allow this unless the tire was almost flat. In the last 30 hours have you found the tire that low on air?
The fact that the rub starts and ends in front of the tire opening further implies that the nose fork was folded back slightly when it happened. One of the theories about the nose-over problem is that the standard axel can lock-up under load and create enough drag to deflect the nose fork back and under. if it catches something while skidding, then you are going over.
Even if it was low tire pressure, you came very close to a real problem. Do you have a lip Skid? If not, I would suggest you consider one and either a Matco axel ( http://www.matcomfg.com/AXLEASSEMBLYA24125INCH-idv-3657-1.html ) or the anti-splat bearing upgrade.
Have you been to any grass strips lately? I just returned from the Triple Tree fly-in. While taxiing for departure I think I found the only hole on the field. It broke the lower third off my wheelpant. Prior to that it's only shown grass stains. I also land with the nose wheel about a foot off the ground and keep it there until it settle with stick full back. I found that if I landed full stall the nose dropped faster than I liked. The Triple Tree incident is one more reason I'm going to mod the plane for TW!
I have no nose wheel, but that paint pealing looks like bad adherence too. Paint should not come off like that, even if it hit the pavement.
When you get that pant off and begin the repair look and see if you can peal more paint off. A full strip and re-prime appears to be in order. Maybe the raw surface was not completely dust free when painted. Just something odd there.
Looks like someone came close to having a bad day...
The scratches in the fiberglass look more like concrete than asphalt. Does that help identify which runway or taxiway the event occurred on? Maybe at a lip at an apron / taxiway junction?
I had a grass stain and crack on my nose wheel pant after attending a fly-in. The only time I was on grass was to enter my parking row. The grass was a rough surface and a bit of a depression from the taxiway to the grass, I figure it happened on the way out as I did not discover it still I returned home.
I made repairs and went to OSH the same year and I have taxied on grass many times since and have not had a repeat of the issue.
If I were to take a guess, your pant bottomed out going over surfaces of different heights which cause the scrap mark.
Having this issue just on taxi has kept me from getting the courage to try a grass strip but I plan to correct that sometime soon I hope. My plan is to have stuff in the aft baggage to give a more aft CG, with a passenger in back it is easy to keep the nose up. With just me, I have to land with a bit of energy.
....gotta love the variety of possibilities!
one more: landing yesterday on an 8900' runway, it seemed a shame not to use some of the first 1400' ahead of the displaced threshold....especially since I was a little low and slow....why drive it on with power at such a low altitude and airspeed.
note to self, there are centerline lights
^
^
^
^
and threshold lights
0 0 0 0 0
allegedly flush with the asphalt, but they have a fair bit of structure to them; they are not under a glass plate!
THuNK!...I think I went over one with the left main, but certainly a good spot to drop the tiny nosewheel into, and the pant would likely show the result.
that, and add the typical foreign objects on a runway used every few minutes by heavies, there could be a fair bit o' junk that is taller than the 1" clearance under the nosewheel pant!!!
I'm going to go along with maybe bad paint adhesion. Moisture maybe getting behind it. If it was rash it would go all the way to the edge. Looks like it's just peeling away on it own. IMHO and you know what they say about opinions! Had paint come off a cold box just like that.
I note that there doesn't seem to be a consistent pattern of peeling. Some of the paint is peeling away aft, but there's also some that appears to be peeling away forward.
I think this lends some credence to the suggestion that this is a paint problem adhering to the fiberglass.
I note that there doesn't seem to be a consistent pattern of peeling. Some of the paint is peeling away aft, but there's also some that appears to be peeling away forward.
I think this lends some credence to the suggestion that this is a paint problem adhering to the fiberglass.
ok, many questions have been asked and I will try to remember them all.
I keep the nose tire pressure at 45-50 psi in large part due to my prior experience with this exact tire size on my Lancair. The tire pressure at no time was lower than 45 psi.
This plane has never been to a grass strip.
No lip skid, but again does have nose job.
The paint job is low budget (read: rattle can) and in a couple of places - just a couple of small places - it has peeled less than dime size patches.
During the time frame when this occurred, the plane was only to about 4 airports. One of them does have an area with a slight change in pavement height but I doubt enough to cause this. I do not know of concrete at any of them.
I am out of state right now but will have to look at the home airports plane tug. It has a skid plate which slides under the nose wheel, and picks the nose wheel off the ground to transport the aircraft. I believe that tug has an angled lip at the end of the skid which conceivably may have caused this.
Looking at the pics it appears there is some damage toward one side. That and as high as the damage is, I have a hard time believing the tire could deform enough to result in this damage. Also, it seems to my admittedly uneducated eye that if the nose strut began to fold back, the damage would not be limited to just where it is; rather it seems in that case the damage should be further forward on the nose wheel pant also.
I think Vlad is on to something. Mine looks just about like that (actually a little worse it has cracked as well). I have the same peeling paint issue too. I attributed the damage to an overzealous volunteer at the Grissom Air Reserve Base fly in last year. He ran up as soon as I shut down and jammed a huge yellow chock under my front wheel. This thing looked like it was for a C-130 or something. It didn't come close to touching the tire just contacted the wheel pant. I have the AntiSplant brace and skid plate, only land on hard surfaces and make sure I always protect the "taxying peg". I haven't made any landings that would even come close to tucking the nose wheel under.
