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RV-10 Nose Wheel alignment in flight

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Rocket Man

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I was tailing my buddies 10 yesterday and noticed that his nose wheel was canted left about 30 degrees in cruise. After talking it over on the ground I tailed him on the next takeoff and noticed that his nose wheel did a little shimmy as he lifted off and then rather slowly turned left, again about 30 degrees as he gained airspeed. Has anyone else noticed this, or come up with a corrective fix?
 
Rocket Man said:
I was tailing my buddies 10 yesterday and noticed that his nose wheel was canted left about 30 degrees in cruise. After talking it over on the ground I tailed him on the next takeoff and noticed that his nose wheel did a little shimmy as he lifted off and then rather slowly turned left, again about 30 degrees as he gained airspeed. Has anyone else noticed this, or come up with a corrective fix?
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it has been noticed in the past.
Corrective fix? Adjust the fork friction within spec.
In normal operation there should be no shimmy. You said you saw some shimmy.... then something is wrong and should be corrected.
 
I had this issue in the first 30 hours of flight. I just tightened up the nose wheel castor preload which took care of it. You almost can't tighten the preload to much.
 
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It has been discussed but I have not heard a (reasonable) explanation.

Think about the prop direction of rotation. :confused:

I have observed it on several -10's. Tightening the fork castor resistance will make it track strait and increase cruise speed. Also it affects rudder trim.
 
I posted about this a while ago. If you recall when we build the nose fork and set the breakout force, the zerk fitting in the nose bracket hasn't been greased yet (at least for most people). Once the fitting is greased and the belleville washers are lubricated the friction drops considerably.
 
Also, this is not a set it and forget it adjustment.

Ever since RV's began using this friction system on A models, it has been common for it to loosen up after initial use.

It usually always requires an adjustment some time in the first 50 hrs or so, then sometimes a second one at around 100.
After that it tends to be pretty stable.
 
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