Feeling of deja vu
Ironflight said:
I don't think that Van's is going to redesign it, and they have pretty much said so.
Paul
Gee, I'm having a strong feeling of deja vu here. Flashback to 2004. Builders are expressing concern over the number of nosegear failures....the "pilot error" brigade are saying that there's nothing wrong with the nosegear. And Vans are steadfastly repeating that they have no intentions of making any changes.
And then in 2005....suddenly, hey presto...Vans announced that they were making a modification to the nose gear and the new raked fork appeared with additional ground clearance.
And suddently, overnight, all of the "pilot error" brigade went to ground. Not a peep was heard out of any of them for months. They were obviously shocked to discover that Vans had humiliated them by opting to redesign the "perfect" nosegear.
Incidentally I don't think it's at all valid to say to concerned builders: "Come up with an engineering alternative or shut-up and stop complaining". On the contrary, continuous public complaining is what brought about the 2005 upgrade.
It is also not valid to say that no constructive suggestions are ever made. On the contrary I think some observations have been very constructive. Walt Aronow has redesigned his nose gear fairing to give the fairing the extra 1" of clearance now afforded by the new raked fork...and it's an attractive design. Vans should immediately follow his lead. It simply does not make any sense for them to increase the clearance of the fork but not increase the clearance of the fairing.
Incidentally I told them exactly this when I visited the Vans factory in 2006. I pointed out that increasing the clearance of the fairing had significant upside. In addition it would not add cost, not add weight, probably have no effect on speed....and could be easily retrofitted to existing projects.
I did transition training with Mike Seagar in an RV6A. Ninety percent of that training is about learning to keep the nosegear off the ground. It's about coming to terms with the fact that the nosegear is very fragile and flying the plane accordingly. People point to the fact that Pete flies "Old Blue" in and out of the grass strip at his home base at Vernonia.....it's true, but he has more hours in an RV than any man in the world...and he STILL won't land at the western end of the Vernonia strip because it's a less than perfect surface.
I fully understand that the Van's nosegear is a compromise involving cost, speed, weight etc. And everyone needs to come to grip with the fact that such a small tire with such minimal clearance will always be problematic on unmade strips.
But that is not to say that worthwhile improvements cannot be made to the existing nosegear.
At the very least Vans should now offer an increased clearance nose wheel fairing (preferably with solid reinforcement under the nut area) as an option for those who may wish to venture onto grass.
Here's the Aronow increased clearance mod. Now, does that look like TOO MUCH clearance for you.