Flat tires

[Tommy]

Sounds like no one has any experience yet with the Aero Classic Leakguard tubes. I guess I'm the guinea pig.

I have them. No problem for a whole set of mains. I will replace all this November. No more tread left.

[smoss]

Thanks Tommy, guess I'll stop worrying about it.

[Colin]

I try not to brake hard until I have the flaps pulled up. That way there is more weight on the tires and I am a little less likely to flat spot one.

[Moonshine]

Sounds like no one has any experience yet with the Aero Classic Leakguard tubes. I guess I'm the guinea pig.

I've been told that Leakguard tubes are made at the same place as the Michelins - just different branding.
Those are my tubes of choice - yet to have a RTFHIT* event in 300 hrs or so. Had one with a Goodyear though, was told that "there was a bad batch of those" and have been staying away from them ever since. I do use Goodyear Flight Custom III tires all over though - and been quite happy with them too.

*Random Tiny Freakin' Hole in Tube

[smoss]

Cool Max! The blurb for them does sound a lot like the Michellin blurb. The only thing I don't like about the Aero Classic tube is the valve stem is really long and almost touches the axle cap cotter bolt nut as the tire rotates, and it's hard to get my pressure gauge on since it's so close to the axle.

[Moonshine]

Hmm, never noticed. I fly 600-6 wheels, do you have 15/600-6 tubes and tires? I wonder if those are different length stems.

[smoss]

yes, have 15/600-6's.

[DCLEMONS]

Great posts - thank you .

Recently had a flat tire on a DA40 landing and it was a memorable experience to say the least. Knowing something was wrong, I hit the brakes rather than using right rudder. The plane immediately positioned (Jumped) left and went into a full left skid , did I say skid? My words during the landing were more like "----,---- .... @!&^%43" .

I believe the air speed allowed the right side (Flat ) to SKIP and the left break side to really grab. You wont want to do this twice.

In looking back at the pre-flight and the tires looking / feeling right, I will never leave a hanger again with out full tire pressure read outs. The tires were Good Year Custom III ( Rated at 160MPH ) Diamond suggests and sells ( Custom II ) rated at 120 MPH. They looked and felt fine. Bad mistake.

I can say the Diamond's wide wheel base kept all tips up - I was very lucky.

If your tanks are full the bird is heavy to lift up on a dolly - three men are needed maybe four, and you need a tow / dolly that can handle 1000 lbs or more. There is nothing like your friends who came to my rescue. It took a handful of people to get he bird on a dolly / towed a 1/2 mile or more back to the hanger.

Im very thankful for the group of knowledgeable people that were available to help me and my Diamond out.

My simple advice is this.

1. Steer the plane - and know when to go around - ( I need training on landing a plane with a flat)
2. Dont be a hermit at the airport- you need your friends and they need you too.
3. Pre-plan a flat tire - Think Friends/ Dolly / Tow in that order
4. Always check the pressure - don't visibly inspect and assume its alright. Its not.
5. We learn from each others mistakes and experience - share what you learn. ( PLEASE!

Happy flying

[smoss]

David, thanks for sharing your experience! I'm curious, when you say "lift on a dolly", do mean you physically lifted up the strut yourselves without using a jack? If so, where were you all holding on to? I've always wondered what would happen in such a scenario with no readily available low wing jack.

[rwtucker]

I had a Goodyear tube go flat under warranty at 40 hours. Diamond paid for the tube but the overnight shipping from Canada was more than a new tube would have cost me in the states. I'm still running on Goodyear but now I keep my pressures about 10-12% high like Tommy. I can't give you any objective data but, other things equal, higher pressure means less flexing, less heat, lower rolling resistance, and I think, less chance of most kinds of failures. There would be exceptions for unusually high positive changes in OAT, etc. I also notice that I get a little less of the inside wear characteristic of leaf spring LG. On the other hand, the higher the pressure, the greater the landing force transmitted through the tires to the rest of the LG and the Diamond engineers probably figured the tire flex into their calculations.

One other thought, when (or if) you get about 50% inside wear differential on the MLG tires, swap sides the next time you pack your bearings.