Interesting "tail" Harold. I wonder if anyone has done a tailwheel spring in carbon fibre. Would there be a weight saving in doing so? Murray Gill
> -----Original Message----- > From: krnet-boun...@mylist.net [mailto:krnet-boun...@mylist.net]On > Behalf Of Harold Woods > Sent: Saturday, 17 April 2004 03:52 > To: kr...@mylist.net > Subject: KR> tail wheel spring. > > > Hi Netters. > You can take all the precautions that you want to create the perfect tail > whel spring and find that it was in vain.Years ago a friend meticulously > suitably hardened his to what was to be the correct hardnes. He was > performing high speed taxi tests on a short runway with high rock > and trees > at one end. He cauciously accelerated and was almost at the end > when he got > his tail up. I suggested that he should go back as far as > possible and give > it full power, raise the tail , power back and run down the field tail up > for a bit then slowdown. He said "come in with me" ( I knew that > it was not > legal for me to do so). He gave it full power but before he > raised the tail > we found ourselves at 20 feet up.The rock at the end looked like > mountains! > He cut the power but it kept on at 20 feet. He kept bringing the > stick back > to slow it down. I fealt the stall occur.The bottom dropped out, It hit > fairly flat but hard. It bounced and eventually stopped. There was a new > problem. The tail of the fuselage was dragging on the ground. The tail > spring had broken into 5 pieces.To get it off the field we went to a local > auto wrecker and had a temporary tail spring made. The man took > an old auto > spring,asked "where do you want the first bend". He applied the torch and > bent it as necessary. "What about the bolt holes?" Zap with the cutting > torch! We asked what about the tempering of the spring, to which > he replied > " It's as good now as before I heated it". He was right.We bolted it into > place and got off the field. It worked perfectly and remained on the plane > thereafter with out ever having any further problems. > I sometimes wonder about all the fuss and blather that we worry about on > some parts. Sorry about the long winded tale. > Regards > Harold Woods > Orillia,ON.Can > haroldwo...@rogers.com > > > > _______________________________________ > to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@mylist.net > please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html >
