It was a very short flight over to our neighboring airport this evening to attend our monthly “Choir Practice” (no actual singing takes place – it is simply a hangar get-together….), and as luck would have it, someone had parked a truck where I usually put the airplane. In order to give myself an “out” when I wanted to leave, I swung the Val around hard – but misjudged the edge of the pavement just a wee bit….
The sound was sort of a “Bang/Snap/Crunch!” Whatever …. it was loud, and I could tell I wasn’t going anywhere. I shut down and climbed out to see that I had apparently invented the RV retractable tail wheel – the wheel was pointing up at the bottom of the rudder, having spun on the round spring, and there was a fair amount of mud spread around. Both of the cross-bolts that hold the tail wheel “knuckle” to the spring had obviously sheared. I was surprised to see a small muddy hole with no obvious fixed objects – I expected that I had unluckily hit something hard and/or solid, but this was not the case.
Truth be told, I generally change these bolts every other annual since they almost always develop a little bit of play, and when removed, show obvious signs of wear. I didn’t change them this most recent annual, but will now make it a yearly event – they are pretty cheap! Still, better for those to shear than to damage the spring attachment to the fuselage – we did a thorough inspection, and found nothing bent or popped after tonight’s incident.
Fortunately for me, I was broken down next to several hangars full of homebuilding tools and parts – we had it all back together before the party really got going. I had to get a quick ride home to pick up a spare tail wheel link we have on the shelf – the one on the plane was slightly bent and had a broken rod end bearing (repairable) – and everything was back together with about 20 minutes of work.
Memories of that awful sound will probably make me a little less casual about imparting side loads on the tail wheel, and I’m going to makes rue to swap the bolts out annually. Meanwhile, I have some little bits of “bolt shrapnel” to add to my “worn out parts” collection that I keep to remind myself that nothing lasts forever….
So - does anyone know the part number for that rod end? Double male AN3 threads....
Paul
The sound was sort of a “Bang/Snap/Crunch!” Whatever …. it was loud, and I could tell I wasn’t going anywhere. I shut down and climbed out to see that I had apparently invented the RV retractable tail wheel – the wheel was pointing up at the bottom of the rudder, having spun on the round spring, and there was a fair amount of mud spread around. Both of the cross-bolts that hold the tail wheel “knuckle” to the spring had obviously sheared. I was surprised to see a small muddy hole with no obvious fixed objects – I expected that I had unluckily hit something hard and/or solid, but this was not the case.
Truth be told, I generally change these bolts every other annual since they almost always develop a little bit of play, and when removed, show obvious signs of wear. I didn’t change them this most recent annual, but will now make it a yearly event – they are pretty cheap! Still, better for those to shear than to damage the spring attachment to the fuselage – we did a thorough inspection, and found nothing bent or popped after tonight’s incident.
Fortunately for me, I was broken down next to several hangars full of homebuilding tools and parts – we had it all back together before the party really got going. I had to get a quick ride home to pick up a spare tail wheel link we have on the shelf – the one on the plane was slightly bent and had a broken rod end bearing (repairable) – and everything was back together with about 20 minutes of work.
Memories of that awful sound will probably make me a little less casual about imparting side loads on the tail wheel, and I’m going to makes rue to swap the bolts out annually. Meanwhile, I have some little bits of “bolt shrapnel” to add to my “worn out parts” collection that I keep to remind myself that nothing lasts forever….
So - does anyone know the part number for that rod end? Double male AN3 threads....
Paul
Last edited:
