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Stay Away From Nosedraggers


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Posted

Cirrus has taken the title of 'Dr. and Lawyer Killer' now.  As long as people with ego's and bank accounts larger than their piloting skills fly, some airplane will have that title.  Even a airframe parachute has only slowed the rate of attrition.....

Mark

 

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Posted

Cirrus has taken the title of 'Dr. and Lawyer Killer' now.  As long as people with ego's and bank accounts larger than their piloting skills fly, some airplane will have that title.  Even a airframe parachute has only slowed the rate of attrition.....

Mark

 

I'm thinking that title will pass to the Icon at some point.

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Posted

Cirrus has taken the title of 'Dr. and Lawyer Killer' now.  As long as people with ego's and bank accounts larger than their piloting skills fly, some airplane will have that title.  Even a airframe parachute has only slowed the rate of attrition.....

Mark

 

The worst case I have heard about was a Doctor who bought a twin-engine something while I was doing my commercial training - He landed so many times without remembering to put the gear down that the insurance company finally refused to insure him - Don't know if he quit flying after that or bought a fixed-gear plane.  I never heard any more about "The Doc just belly-landed again!".

EDMO

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Posted

And, you have a Million$ to spend on showing the FAA that it is safe for a field approval or an STC?

EDMO

Whats a FAA? Whats a field approval? Why would you want an STD? 

Just screw the little wheel that's underneath the cover on the lower pointy end out and weld it on the bottom of the higher rear end. No need to make this all cosmically complicated, just sum Ducktape and a couple of Styrofoam hooks and off you go! Don't forget the "EXPERIMENTAL" decal! Oh. And some weight on the tail so it stops flipping over!

I used to co-own a Turbo Arrow (T-Tail) quite a few years ago, but had only two unsafe gear situations. In both the pucker factor was pretty humbling - in both cases some cycling and helping (much to the dismay of the wife unit) brought it out. Up on the jacks we could not duplicate the issue, at all, ever. When checking out a potential "renter" on day, he raised the gear lever while taxiing, to "check the warning horn" as he said. He not only didn't rent from us, I also learned just how stinking mad and violent I could get.

On the landing in the video, I think this was perfectly executed and very well done. Thank god for a two bladed prop! Beautiful plane, too.

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Posted

And, you have a Million$ to spend on showing the FAA that it is safe for a field approval or an STC?

EDMO

Whats a FAA? Whats a field approval? Why would you want an STD? 

Just screw the little wheel that's underneath the cover on the lower pointy end out and weld it on the bottom of the higher rear end. No need to make this all cosmically complicated, just sum Ducktape and a couple of Styrofoam hooks and off you go! Don't forget the "EXPERIMENTAL" decal! Oh. And some weight on the tail so it stops flipping over!

I used to co-own a Turbo Arrow (T-Tail) quite a few years ago, but had only two unsafe gear situations. In both the pucker factor was pretty humbling - in both cases some cycling and helping (much to the dismay of the wife unit) brought it out. Up on the jacks we could not duplicate the issue, at all, ever. When checking out a potential "renter" on day, he raised the gear lever while taxiing, to "check the warning horn" as he said. He not only didn't rent from us, I also learned just how stinking mad and violent I could get.

On the landing in the video, I think this was perfectly executed and very well done. Thank god for a two bladed prop! Beautiful plane, too.

Unfortunately you don't get to make changes to a certified airplane, then put an 'Experimental' sticker on it.  If 51% of it wasn't built by an amateur builder, it doesn't get a experimental airworthiness certificate.  The only time you get to do that is if you are using a certified plane as a test aircraft for STC modifications, which involves a couple of forklifts worth of documentation.

If it was that easy their would be a lot of 'experimental' airplanes flying around with Dynon's in the panel instead of $13,000 Aspen's....

Mark

 

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Posted (edited)

They used to do that - Remember the Piper with the Ford V6 in it?  I saw it for sale a while back.   And Breezy, which I have flown, was a bare tube fuselage with Piper wings attached.  Finally, the FAA wised up, and no longer lets you use "Major" certified parts in your "Experimental", so now we have the 51% rule too.

Unlike those two, the Cessna 150 that Reiner Hoffman put the EA-81 Subaru in and flew it all over the country, was in the "Exibition" category, and was restricted in flight more than the "Amateur-Built, Experimentals".

EDMo

Edited by EDMO

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Posted

Obviously my tongue in cheek comment didn't make it through. My apologies for offending those who realized that:

  1. This wasn't a gear collapse.
  2. Certified airplanes cannot be declared "Experimental" by just everyone.
  3. It is unlikely to see a V-Tail Bonanza converted to conventional gear, anytime soon.
  4. ... fill in the blank

:rolleyes:

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Posted

I am offended by your initial comment and your obviously insincere apology. Your Chancelor must resign.

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Posted

:lmao: 

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Posted

Cirrus has taken the title of 'Dr. and Lawyer Killer' now.  As long as people with ego's and bank accounts larger than their piloting skills fly, some airplane will have that title.  Even a airframe parachute has only slowed the rate of attrition.....

Mark

 

LOL!!! At least the Cirrus has fixed gear. I'm not a fan of the controls though....

They used to do that - Remember the Piper with the Ford V6 in it?  I saw it for sale a while back.   And Breezy, which I have flown, was a bare tube fuselage with Piper wings attached.  Finally, the FAA wised up, and no longer lets you use "Major" certified parts in your "Experimental", so now we have the 51% rule too.

Unlike those two, the Cessna 150 that Reiner Hoffman put the EA-81 Subaru in and flew it all over the country, was in the "Exibition" category, and was restricted in flight more than the "Amateur-Built, Experimentals".

EDMo

I've flown a Breezy. It flies great under power. No power... falling is more like what it does.

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Posted

Your Chancelor must resign.

Her head and most of her upper body is planted deeply in (y)our Presidents rear end. I suppose when he leaves, she will be right along.

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Posted

Obviously my tongue in cheek comment didn't make it through. My apologies for offending those who realized that:

  1. This wasn't a gear collapse.
  2. Certified airplanes cannot be declared "Experimental" by just everyone.
  3. It is unlikely to see a V-Tail Bonanza converted to conventional gear, anytime soon.
  4. ... fill in the blank

:rolleyes:

I fully understood it was a tongue in cheek comment.  No offense to me!  Mine was more a sad statement of the obvious than a complaint!

Mark

 

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Posted (edited)

Obviously my tongue in cheek comment didn't make it through. My apologies for offending those who realized that:

  1. This wasn't a gear collapse.
  2. Certified airplanes cannot be declared "Experimental" by just everyone.
  3. It is unlikely to see a V-Tail Bonanza converted to conventional gear, anytime soon.
  4. ... fill in the blank

:rolleyes:

I fully understood it was a tongue in cheek comment.  No offense to me!  Mine was more a sad statement of the obvious than a complaint!

Mark

 

JJ,  I'm too old to be offended by hardly anything - My feelings were the same as Mark's. 

Of course, my opinion of modern  advanced engineering putting the 3rd wheel up front is well known!

I still respect the rights of those who choose to imitate the past history of aviation by flying taildraggers,

propping by hand,  open cockpits, and flying at night with a kerosene lantern, etc.  

EDMO

Edited by EDMO

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Posted

Putting on my best backseat driver hat... great landing under duress, but my question - sure looks like a lot of runway left to stand on the brakes as hard as he did. I'll bet that cost a shit ton more to fix than simply letting the tail settle on the tail skid. I know, easy to critique others but he had the foresight to shut the engine down at the last minute and it didn't look like he was having directional issues or major problem keeping it straight so why put the plane up on it's nose? I'm not throwing crap, just trying to learn something. 

Unless he had the plane loaded real tail-heavy, and it don't look like it, the weight is going to be forward of the gear and it aint gonna sit on the tail, even without brakes, which he probably applied to keep the nose from skidding and doing more damage.  Once he lost rudder control, he had no directional control without a nose wheel - I would want to get it stopped asap.

EDMO

Well, I will correct myself before someone else does - I was thinking "Ercoupe" which did not have individual wheel braking - guess he had some control with his brakes, but I would still want to get it stopped asap.

The design theory for a nose-dragger is that, "With the tail down on the skid, the most aft CG should be 3 degrees forward of a vertical line from the center of the main wheels" - So it is not supposed to sit on the tail if loaded within the CG range.

EDMO

Edmo, Could you explain to me how this last statement makes sense?  The CG of a taildragger must be behind the mains, otherwise we'd have a real tough time keeping her from tipping over onto her nose.

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Posted

Oops! Misread!  You said Nosedragger!  

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Posted (edited)

Oops! Misread!  You said Nosedragger!  

Yes,  You are correct, the CG of taildragger has to be behind the mains - Nose dragger is in front of mains.  Weight of nosewheel should be between 8% and 15% of total GW, with 12% being about optimal.  Weight on tailwheel should be about 1/2 of that.  EDMO

Edited by EDMO

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