Corked Nose Wheel

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BRS
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Re: Corked Nose Wheel

Post by BRS »

Install the fin with Velcro and be done with it.
Just kidding.
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Roxi5m9
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Re: Corked Nose Wheel

Post by Roxi5m9 »

Rich wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 1:33 pm
Roxi5m9 wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 1:08 pm
Rich wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 5:21 pm

No good deed goes unpunished, eh? :D I would guess uncertainties lie mostly with the "speed gear" and possibly the NG (there is an OSB for nose fairing replacement in conjunction with different versions of the nose gear).
Haha. For sure. Just excited and hopeful. Bret sent me a fin for a trial run on my 2004 and it was quite a bit different in curvature of the fairing and mounting screw placement. I would have offered up my fairing for drafting but I have a partner in the plane and we fly a lot and didn’t want to go without it for several long cross countries. So I’ve been hoping he found an available one located close to him. But I will say what he has so far is a solid design and looks sharp.
Nick, is yours the speed gear? Also I need to correct the highlighted text, above. The OSB is for different nose strut fairing, to go with the alternative nose strut.
Rich, yes, I have the speed gear. The bretfin v.1 :D was about an inch short, had a sharper curve to the base and misaligned mounting holes relative to a 2004 speedy nose wheel fairing. Very excited though about the upcoming bretfin v.2.
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Rich
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Re: Corked Nose Wheel

Post by Rich »

I just watched a video posted by a friend of mine on FB of a DA40 flight. He had a camera out under the left wing, pointed to his no-fairing nosewheel. Because of the angle one couldn't tell if the nosewheel was off-center in flight. But upon nosewheel touchdown (mains were already down) you could definitely see the nosewheel jerk from its off-center position to line up with the direction of travel. Just one quick move and one could see by the runway centerline stripe it wasn't landed in a crab or otherwise swerving.
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Re: Corked Nose Wheel

Post by Rich »

I was out measuring some unrelated stuff and realized that the ground attitude of my plane relative to flight has a bearing on that 5 degree backward angle I measured. I found that, by the AI, my plane sits in a 5 degree nose-up attitude in the circumstance I measured it in the hangar. In max cruise scenarios the AI shows zero. So even without the additional angle introduced by nosewheel inloading, I'm likely starting at about 10 degrees off vertical.

FWIW, my nosewheel rubber pucks were changed some years back and I have the thinner (18mm) main gear legs. Relative to "level" as defined by the weighing procedure in the AMM, it sits at about 3.5 degrees nose up in its typical state in the hangar, with about 20-30 gallons in the tanks.
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Re: Corked Nose Wheel

Post by perossichi »

Rather than bending the rudder trim tab, wouldn’t it be better to simply remove it? That way you can restore the trim setting from the factory if desired.
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Re: Corked Nose Wheel

Post by Pilot55 »

You could do that to test your plane. Every plane fly’s just a little different, so you might need a small amount of trim. My plane fly’s coordinated with the trim tab straight.
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Re: Corked Nose Wheel

Post by perossichi »

Put the Brett fin on today. Rudder trim is straight. Flew pattern with ball centered on downwind. Will try tests in xc at full power in a day or so. So far it seems to eliminate the need for left rudder in level flight. Will look at speed improvement as well.
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Re: Corked Nose Wheel

Post by Kyle »

Roxi5m9 wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2019 4:45 am
Rich wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 1:33 pm
Roxi5m9 wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 1:08 pm

Haha. For sure. Just excited and hopeful. Bret sent me a fin for a trial run on my 2004 and it was quite a bit different in curvature of the fairing and mounting screw placement. I would have offered up my fairing for drafting but I have a partner in the plane and we fly a lot and didn’t want to go without it for several long cross countries. So I’ve been hoping he found an available one located close to him. But I will say what he has so far is a solid design and looks sharp.
Nick, is yours the speed gear? Also I need to correct the highlighted text, above. The OSB is for different nose strut fairing, to go with the alternative nose strut.
Rich, yes, I have the speed gear. The bretfin v.1 :D was about an inch short, had a sharper curve to the base and misaligned mounting holes relative to a 2004 speedy nose wheel fairing. Very excited though about the upcoming bretfin v.2.
Thanks for working on a solution to this problem Bret. I have a 2008. Is this the "speed gear" that the Bretfin will not work with?
nosewheel.jpg
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Re: Corked Nose Wheel

Post by Pilot55 »

that is the standard nose wheel pant. I will make a fin for that fin if I can get one to laser scan. The rear of this fin is much slimmer than the earlier models and requires a redesign of the mounting lip. If you can part with your wheel pant for a few days I will scan your pant and return it to you, then in a few weeks I will send you your new fin free of charge.
Thanks
Bret
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Re: Corked Nose Wheel

Post by Kyle »

Pilot55 wrote: Tue Jul 09, 2019 10:59 pm that is the standard nose wheel pant. I will make a fin for that fin if I can get one to laser scan. The rear of this fin is much slimmer than the earlier models and requires a redesign of the mounting lip. If you can part with your wheel pant for a few days I will scan your pant and return it to you, then in a few weeks I will send you your new fin free of charge.
Thanks
Bret
Sent you a PM Bret.
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