If you put enough engines on a brick it will fly, right!?

If you put enough engines on a brick it will fly, right!?

The latest videos show misunderstandings of the nose gear dampening and fixture. I had the same Lancair nose gear on my Stallion and same problem. Fixes are proposed after severe shimmy during taxi. We’ll see...

I once had nose gear shimmy on landing in my 182. It was so severe that I radioed the Tower to advise. Thought I’d be stuck on runway. And then it suddenly stopped. But no tower response as the shimmy actually popped out my transmitting radio! All turned out well —- no damage, had shimmy damper rebuilt.

Blue skies,

Tom

Note that this nose gear assembly was originally designed in Australia for the early Lancairs and used for later models. The shimmy damper is integral to the post / shock absorber.

The original solution proposed for the Raptor was to add an external Bonanza/Cessna type damper but they are now trying to make the original work with better fastening and a new tire.

For me, these “discoveries” like the damper and destroyed pump motor are shocking so late in the game.

Blue skies,

Tommy

Yeah, it's interesting that he didn't know it already had a damper. Building an aircraft via trial and error seems like a dangerous approach.

Just for a point of reference that's Beechcraft-related, the development work on the Texan II was done at the end of the 1990s but the original nosewheel shimmy damper was found to be inadequate and often quite wanting on anything but brand new airplanes. The collective braintrust in Wichita, Wright-Patterson, and Pax River got an airframe mod figured out and as early as 2012 we had aircraft on the flight line with a "friction collar" in the nose gear assembly that provided additional damping to supplement the original shimmy damper.

I'm not making excuses or justifying anything about the Raptor, not even saying to cut the guy a break, just trying to keep this stuff in perspective on what the industry "experts" sometimes do.

Shimmy is back!

He’s figured out he can double the injector pressures. He took a tuning class. He’s been fine with 1700 EGTs. This engine is going to grenade on him.

Why wouldn’t he get this engine to a tuning expert? This isn’t something you can just play with.

The question and observation apply to every single part of the project.

I admire his tenacity and enjoy following his channel, but I agree with you guys... I hope his trial and error process does not result in a fatality.

In the recent video he was talking about EGTs and he says something to the effect of "... and I've had them up above 2000 degrees so 1900 doesn't bother me." that doesn't seem like a valid reason why 2000 degrees shouldn't bother you. Logic like that is what makes me nervous.

Somewhere earlier in the video he says he estimates he's putting out about 220HP. Doesn't seem like a lot of power for a bird that, IIRC, exceeds 3600lbs. I'm not an engineer so maybe there's more to consider than just weight and power in this case.

https://youtu.be/8L9e8zReCUg?t=1212

Last Friday I was heading to south Georgia in the little bird and heard him on the radio doing high speed taxi's as I overflew his airport. I gave him a brief call and told him I had seen the videos and was pulling for him. Bless his heart....as we say in the south.

When I lived in Alabama, we used to say “if somebody’s blessin’ your heart it means something bad is happening to you!”

When I lived in Alabama, we used to say “if somebody’s blessin’ your heart it means something bad is happening to you!”

When I lived in Alabama, we used to say “if somebody’s blessin’ your heart it means something bad is happening to you!”