Wheel landings and (lack of) shimmy

[Bryan Cotton]

Raise the mains off the ground sometime and twist the wheels and legs side to side to see if there's any play. The bolt hole on one of my axles got wallowed pretty early on and seemed to allow some shimmy. I welded the bolt hole closed and redrilled it to remove the play. I also added feeler gauges as shims between the titanium leg and inside of the socket. There was a pretty noticeable amount of play.

I'll check that. I had shimmy on the first landing, and my fit of both the gear leg into the socket, and the bolt were tight.

[flyingbear]

There are a couple of pooorly designed/manufactured areas in the Sonex/Onex line. My ONEX is an early model and had defective gear and brakes that were a joke. The gear was too weak with improper toe. Sonex , years ago, would not replace it because I was the second owner of the project (first to fly it). I threw the gear in the trash and bought gear from OKeefe (retired now) and also bought their brakes. Now I have superb brakes and great gear. I ordered thicker gear legs and two inches longer to give me a bit more angle of attack on takeoff and landing. It is vastly superior in every way.

Now if someone could come up with a way to fill the gas tank on a ONEX without going through a HOLE in the windshield I would be happy. Who would EVER fill gas through a HOLE in the windshield made of Lexan----UGH. Two drops of fuel on it, which I wiped up as soon as I could and I now have to replace my windshield. Under tension/curved Lexan just cannot handle any fuel at all.

I LOVE the control response of the airplane though I it has been fun to fly.