KrNetters, Ted wrote:
Could you elaborate on the nose gear that collapsed? Where did it fail? Whose nose gear was it? Diehl? He has two, a standard and a Corvair version (don't know the difference). Do any recommendations come out of this incident regarding the mounting of the nose gear? Jim Morehead was the builder of this plane, so he final authority on the nose gear. It appeared to me to be a standard (VW) Diehl system. As far as where it folded, you can take a look at link http://sites.google.com/a/wildblue.net/goodmans/Home/2010-kr2-mishap. There is a good photo from the side of just the nose gear located there. We hit extremely hard on the nose on the first bounce. I could not tell you how hard the second hit was compared to the first, as my eyes were completely uncaged for about one second after the first impact. What I can tell you is the gear did not shatter until after the second impact nose-first of the plane onto the runway. I know this because though my eyes were uncaged I could still see the prop shatter on the second hit. That the landing gear withstood the first impact is a testimony to the Diehl gear's solid design. Having nose-planted my own plane three years ago on a Corvair-weight gear (which bent, but did not fail) and last year taking that same strut off-roading at 35 KTS off a runway in California the Diehl gear is superb. In both my excursions outside the norm I took the strut to a muffler shop and had it bent back out ~15 degrees or so... good as new. A safety plug (again) for those new to the plane. My own first bent strut came from an inadvertent takeoff during high speed taxi. I pushed the nose over (1/16 to 1/4 inch stick forward) and came crashing down on the nose. The second came on a landing in very rough weather and one of my brake pistons failed. Not able to stop, I bled as much speed off as I could before the end of the runway. Nothing I could do about it, but the strut held again, though I dug a good sized furrow with the nose tire in the soft dirt. Sorry for the long answer. If you need more data, let me know and I can e-mail you privately. IHS, David Goodman Vertical Avionics, Inc. www.verticalavionics.com
