Pietenpol-List: Landing gear change

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Original Posted By: "William C. Beerman"
Just thought I would give you all an update...I am replacing my main landing gear. This morning I went to the airport at6am. Even at the early hour is was still nearly 80 degrees. I put the AirCamper up on saw horses and pulled the main gear off. Why you ask? Well itall began when I built the first gear frames. Not until about 120 landingslater did I realise that I had made a mistake during construction. For somereason I ordered the wrong wall thickness tubing for the down tubes on mygear. I discovered this after I planted it on landing with a passenger.Not to proud of that landing. On the next flight I was taking off information and I had a difficult time rolling straight. I thought that ifmight be because I was in the propwash of the other aircraft and dismissedit. We flew to a grass strip and landed uneventfully. I was second to landand after I hopped out Duane said "Hey your gear is tweeked" It took aminute to figure out what was bent. The right (starboard) gear was bent inabout 7 degrees and toed in about 4 degrees. I hadn't felt the problem onthe grass, but soon realized why my take-off was so whacked. At the jointof the two 1-3/8" tubes at the axle the tubing had crumpled. The brakecaliper was touching the tube preventing the wheel from folding completely.What a bummer. I had never heard of Piet gear being a weak spot an stoodthere scratching my head for a while. I had to decide to fly the 20 milesback home and land on a hard surface runway or truck and trailer it back 40miles. I choose to fly it out. The take off was fun. The grass made iteasy. I just held full opposite aileron and lifted the right wheel, takingoff in a slip. I flew around for nearly two hours to burn off as much fuelas I could, then headed for home. I made a low pass down the runway andfound Duane waiting in his truck. I decided to commit it to the runway thesecond time. It was a very slow and high angle of attack landing. Again Iheld the right wing high and slipped down to a one point tailwheel firsttouch-down. The left gear contacted next just as I cut the last of thepower. I held the right main off until I ran out of aileron travel andairspeed. When the right gear touched I was tossed left briefly, and aftera joggle or two I was quickly down to taxi speed. Whew. With the toe inI kind of skipped/limped to my parking spot using more rubber than theprevious 100 landings combined I'm sure. I went home and scoured my notes.Sure enough I had ordered the tubing wrong. I ordered .035 wall instead of.079! Lesson learned I ordered the correct tubing (after double checkingtwice) and rebuilt the gear from the ground up. On this version I added 2inches to the height and moved the axle back 1.5 inches. I'll report howthis turns out. For now I have to finish some welding and get it painted.After this mornings successful trial fit, I am again stoked to get in theair again.Steve (checking my orders carefully) E.________________________________________________________________________________

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Original Posted By:> steve(at)byu.edu
Steve, Just getting ready to begin our gear. Do you have any pics from yourrebuilding?-Bill> Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 09:31:24 -0600

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Original Posted By:> steve(at)byu.edu
No, but I do have a handy dandy digital camera... I'll snap some and postthem on my web site. Stay tuned....Any particualar shots/angles you want?Stevee-----Original Message-----William C. BeermanSent: Tuesday, July 21, 1998 12:03 PMSubject: Pietenpol-List: Re: Landing gear changeSteve,Just getting ready to begin our gear. Do you have any pics from yourrebuilding?-Bill> Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 09:31:24 -0600

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Original Posted By:> steve(at)byu.edu
I'm particularly interested in the axle and cross-tube attachment at the lowerend, and the hinge lugs at the upper end.Thanks SO MUCH!!!-Bill> Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 12:22:09 -0600

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Original Posted By:> > steve(at)byu.edu