TommyJ
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2008
- Messages
- 132
- Reaction score
- 33
I just wanted to take a few minutes to advise anyone flying an Aviation Products tailwheel to pull the wheel assembly off the stinger and check for cracks where the bolt hole is drilled through.
Yesterday I had a failure upon landing at a local field and my initial assessment (I won't be able to pull the assembly until tonight) is that it had been fatiguing for a while, then catastrophically failed when landing at this very rough field.
I want to be very clear that I am in NO way questioning the construction or quality of the API unit, and I fully intend to stick with them. The tailwheel assembly is of topnotch quality, and the RV community uses them a lot with great success.
However, I believe the method of mounting the tailwheel to the stinger is far more crucial than I originally anticipated, and I will be putting that allegedly big brain of mine to work optimizing the mounting method to mitigate the risk of this happening in the future.
When I have more data on the exact failure mode and a proposed countermeasure I'll report back.
Again, I have great faith in the API tailwheel, it works beautifully and is a fine piece of equipment. But I regularly have to fly in and out of a field that is rough as a cob and additional measures may need to be employed to ensure the unit has a long and uneventful life.
All I am saying is if you fly this tailwheel, check the stinger for cracks where the cross-hole is drilled. It may save you the time I will now be investing in repairing the covering on my rudder.
Yesterday I had a failure upon landing at a local field and my initial assessment (I won't be able to pull the assembly until tonight) is that it had been fatiguing for a while, then catastrophically failed when landing at this very rough field.
I want to be very clear that I am in NO way questioning the construction or quality of the API unit, and I fully intend to stick with them. The tailwheel assembly is of topnotch quality, and the RV community uses them a lot with great success.
However, I believe the method of mounting the tailwheel to the stinger is far more crucial than I originally anticipated, and I will be putting that allegedly big brain of mine to work optimizing the mounting method to mitigate the risk of this happening in the future.
When I have more data on the exact failure mode and a proposed countermeasure I'll report back.
Again, I have great faith in the API tailwheel, it works beautifully and is a fine piece of equipment. But I regularly have to fly in and out of a field that is rough as a cob and additional measures may need to be employed to ensure the unit has a long and uneventful life.
All I am saying is if you fly this tailwheel, check the stinger for cracks where the cross-hole is drilled. It may save you the time I will now be investing in repairing the covering on my rudder.
