Donald wrote: > I give up. The main tires are at 20, the nose > at 15, still get 72-73 inches on tail height.
Hmmmm . . . I'm not sure giving up is the optimum course of action. (Though I'm guessing your statement was facetious rather than saying you were really giving up.) Do remember that tail height isn't the true criterion - the window sill level is the specification. If the tail is low and the window sills not level, the wings are at a higher angle of attack than designed and that does degrade your crosswind safety. If you use the formulas Bill Coons developed (http://ercoupeparts.com/spacers.pdf), then you can more properly determine how low your tail is. With some planes, gear, tires, etc., 72-73 inches is only 2-3 inches low and that's at or beyond my personal limit. With other planes, 72-73 inches could be 3.5-5 inches low and that's certainly enough to cause undesirable crosswind operation safety ramifications. Bill's formulas help you determine just how thick the spacers need to be for your particular aircraft. Ed
