I had the left one fail while taxi turning right at an average fast
walking speed. When the leg breaks, the wigtip just clears the ground.
But the noise you may hear from the OR-1 grinding on the pavement made
me want to stop right now! The glider pilot in me probably took over and
I think I applied the brake. That's the wrong thing to do, especially in
a turn away from the low wing. It will nose over MUCH easier in that
configuration. That was it for the prop, and the wingtip lost some
paint.
I had another one break on a bouncy landing with my insructor in the
right seat.No brake applied and some loss of directional control. Damage
was limited to the OR-1.
I broke another on a bounced go-around. I thought I heard it break, but
of course you can't see it from the cockpit. I made a low pass and saw
it littering the runway.That inspired me to do a good landing (finally)
and hold the wing up with aileron to a full stop with brake after
slowing and turning slightly toward the broken side.
I broke one in the hanger. I was pushing down on the wing tip to see the
flex of my newly replaced outrigger and it shattered.
All these failures happened in above freezing temps, but I did not
record actual temps. I bought replacement Nylon 6/6 from McMaster.
Look at the data sheets before deciding on the MDS-filled Nylon
(available on McMaster site). As I recall, it is no better for this
application.
I'll let ya'll know if I ever break one of my fiberglass legs.
Kevin
N211KA
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