stevanlcrawford

stevanlcrawford

Member
My RV-4 has the "high recovery" (read: CLOSE-fitting) wheelpants. Has anyone operated out of grass strips with these? I'm not afraid to clean up afterwards, and yes, I know I could simply remove the wheelpants beforehand...but I'm curious to know if one could cause damage to the fiberglass (or wheel assemblies, themselves) by operating out of grass strips?

Thanks, and HAPPLY HOLIDAYS to all!
Steve Crawford
Woodinville, WA.
 
broken wheel pants

Grass shouldn't hurt them, but embedded rocks in grass can do severe damage, as it has done to mine. One pair of the recovery I installed, (old gel coat type) was totaled. One pant had about 15 little dent/cracks from the inside. I built up a new set (new style),thinking they would be stronger. About an inch and a half, along the bottom and back was ripped right off. They are repairable. The old style (non recovery) held up, with never a problem. I had 1500 hrs on them and alot of it off grass and gravel strips. By the way the strip that ripped off an inch and a half piece was, Big Creek ID..
 
Pants

Steve,
I have a -6 with the newer pants and I'm based at a paved strip.
I do visit grass strips and taxi onto grass parking areas often with no problems. I seem to have more problems hitting misc chocks on the ramp
that cause cracking.....;)
Try it!
The fiberglass is very fixable.
 
I can think of at least a dozen RV's just within a 20 mile radius of me that have pressure recovery wheel pants and are are based at grass runway airports.
 
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