I had the starboard outrigger fail during a landing in January. This
happened on a final landing after two other successful landings within the
past hour of flying (none of the landings were touch and goes). I cannot
remember the exact temperature but there was snow on the ground and I put
the failure down to a combination of dry climate (I am based in Colorado
USA) and cold temperatures making the leg brittle. Certainly the landing
seemed fine and smooth and the leg just broke during the deceleration phase
and not during the actual aircraft to ground contact phase of landing.
After my first landing during the taxi back on the taxi-way, the outrigger
that failed did get stuck briefly in a pile of snow, which I guess in
hindsight would not have helped, although I completed a successful landing
after this had happened. I had replaced the legs within the last two years
and they were direct from the factory.
The moment the outrigger departed and the wing dropped to the ground made me
feel sick - the Airmaster propeller and gearbox had just been replaced on
the aircraft and I was fully expecting the propeller to contact the runway.
This all happened in an instant and I was concentrating on trying to keep
the falling wing up with opposite aileron, steer straight and brake without
nosing over so had no hands left to shut the engine down.
It then became obvious that the propeller was ok and had not contacted the
runway - which was a huge relief. Although I was fully expecting the
underside of the wing to be a mess. Once I had stopped I had time to run the
engine for a couple of minutes to correctly shut it down before hopping out
to inspect the worst. Amazingly there was no damage to the wing, aileron or
flaps. The stub of the outrigger that had been left after the break was worn
down to the OR1, which had also been worn down at quite an angle, but this
had left an inch clearance between the lowest point of the wing and the
ground. I went from despair to elation in a split second! The damage was
just to the outrigger and the OR1.
Currently I am replacing both outrigger legs with MDS-Filled Nylon 6/6 Rod.
This was a recommendation from the forum - I think Fred Klein - and I shall
see how that goes. This I have sourced from McMaster-Carr and I found their
ordering system and delivery excellent. This rod only seems to come in
black, and is also very slightly lighter than the standard Nylon. It is
meant to have greater strength than the standard nylon rod.
I also ordered up the Easy-Roll Rubber tread wheel to try out, although I
will be getting the inline skate wheel to try also. I have not found the
"Easy-Roll" wheel to be particularly easy at rolling! The pair of wheels I
have do not roll with ease at all, but I will try them first before the
inline skate wheel.
The only thoughts I have to this are that the OR1 saved my wing and probably
propeller. I would consider replacing OR1 with a slightly longer version in
order to provide more of a comfort clearance - that inch of space is very
small and not far to go before greater damage.
I also did think about the possibility of incorporating a spring between the
OR1 and the outrigger in order to provide flexibility. Rigid enough to hold
the two together but for any sharp impact allowing for flexibility.
Robert Hatton
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