flyvulcan
Well-Known Member
I would appreciate some advice from my learned colleagues on the forum about how to stiffen a spring nosegear.
The Lightning Bug has a retractable nosewheel which utilises an aluminium leg. It consists of a slightly curved 4" wide and approximately 1/2" thick piece of stock as can be seen in the attached photo.
It is currently extremely flexible and we want to stiffen it up some because under moderate to heavy braking, we are finding that it is flexing so much that we are risking compromising the prop.
Some suggestions to stiffen it are:
1. Wrap the nose strut in some cloth
2. Bolt a stiffener to either the front face (where it would be in tension) or the rear face (where it would be in compression) of the nose strut.
3. Replace the current nose strut with a new one which is less springy.
Are there any other suggestions?
If option 1 is recommended, what cloth and how many layers?
If option 2 is recommended, what to use (perhaps a 1/8" thick aluminium stock) and where to bolt it?
All sensible suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
Dave
The Lightning Bug has a retractable nosewheel which utilises an aluminium leg. It consists of a slightly curved 4" wide and approximately 1/2" thick piece of stock as can be seen in the attached photo.
It is currently extremely flexible and we want to stiffen it up some because under moderate to heavy braking, we are finding that it is flexing so much that we are risking compromising the prop.
Some suggestions to stiffen it are:
1. Wrap the nose strut in some cloth
2. Bolt a stiffener to either the front face (where it would be in tension) or the rear face (where it would be in compression) of the nose strut.
3. Replace the current nose strut with a new one which is less springy.
Are there any other suggestions?
If option 1 is recommended, what cloth and how many layers?
If option 2 is recommended, what to use (perhaps a 1/8" thick aluminium stock) and where to bolt it?
All sensible suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
Dave
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