In my experience the danger is when you trailer the aircraft on a belly
dolly with the Monowheel locked in the retracted position (although flying
through prolonged choppy turbulence at 120kt might not be far behind?). The
forces applied by the heavy weight of the wheel/tyre and long moment of the
undercarriage arm when driving over potholes and other road surface problems
are significant. Before fitting the strut I experienced significant
distortion and elongation of the three holes through using a trailer with
the wheel fully retracted just once and had to fabricate a new landing gear
lever.
I hoped the strut would fix the weakness but it's conceivable that the
forces involved in rough/turbulent air flight might elongate the bottom hole
- will have to disassemble and examine now.
Roger Mills
G-BVUV
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