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French Lick Insights

Re: French Lick Insights

Sherman,

Camellia took great shots (we can't thank her enough) however the nature of some of the more the "audacious" maneuvers preformed by the "Fab 6" precludes us from posting them in a public forum. Please thank her for the great work.
 
Re: French Lick Insights

I uploaded a few of my pics... Sorry for the dups of 114BL! ;)
 
Re: French Lick Insights

Dave- the pic of 114BL with BOTH wings is better! And thanks for including 112HT! FRH was like a WONDERFUL dream-wasn't it!

Jim- Thanks for the note- understand! We'll have to plan ' A Local'! Will PM!
 
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Re: French Lick Insights

My wife Jana and I returned to French Lick Wednesday, 10 days after I left my beloved Green Angel with her busted leg, and flew home courtesy of Angelo. They put us up on them in the "Presidential Suite" on the Top Floor of West Baden Springs, under the dome. It was spectacular. The room was big enough for 10 and my wife was thoroughly impressed. Dinner was at the 1875 and even trying to "go easy" on them, the bill was about $220. Then Bill the airport manager insisted on meeting me the next morning and filling my wife's car up with gas, no charge. Then he topped off 43W, nearly $300 of AvGas, no charge! I kept insisting that he did not have to do this but he clearly wanted to. Arriving at the airport, the new & rebuilt nose gear was installed perfectly. Did some test hops and all was good. Curtis did a great job.

So ... I got a new $4400 nose gear (total bill, parts and labor) on a 35-year-old plane, $1,000 worth of "reparations," one fine night (enough said about that) and all-in-all a great experience. So many of you were telling me how badly you felt for me when this happened and French Lick, but was I unlucky or unlucky?

Departing IFR that morning, I felt quite lucky, indeed
 
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Re: French Lick Insights

------------new & rebuilt nose gear----------

Scott---I asked before, was the broken scissors attachment on the casting repaired ( & how) or was the casting replaced? If it can be "repaired", that would be very good news. Many times the scissors bolt holes on the casting enlarge or become oval.
 
Re: French Lick Insights

Scott---I asked before, was the broken scissors attachment on the casting repaired ( & how) or was the casting replaced? If it can be "repaired", that would be very good news. Many times the scissors bolt holes on the casting enlarge or become oval.

The scissors, both upper and lower drag brace (hey ... scissors is more descriptive, I agree,) were fine. They put on a new Torque Tube and replaces all hardware, seals, washers, nuts, bolts, etc. I do think the bolt in the upper drag brace that attached to the casting may have been bent as well, but that was replaced.

How to fix an elongated hole in a magnesium casting. Hmmmmmmm ..... could you fill it or re-pour it with something and redrill? Drill it round and insert a sleeve? I cannot imagine the latter working for long, it is already a weak link.
 
Re: French Lick Insights

Scott-you deserve 'the best'! Hope you took some pics of the WB Pres suite/atrium views to post! Thanks for sharing. Can picture the exqusiteness from your descriptions. Plan to go flying later this week.
Looks like you and Jana had the final chapter of the COG FL Fly-IN. Well done. As I wrote in the 70's when life events cause unexpected situations:
"The closing chapters of one adventure preface the commencement of the next adventure". Looking forward to more 'Pilot- in- Command-ering'! :)
 
Re: French Lick Insights

Thanks for the kind words, Sherman. I actually do have a wife! French Lick Pix. Actually, one is a place near French Lick.
 

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Re: French Lick Insights

Glad it all worked out well Scott.
 
Re: French Lick Insights

My wife Jana and I returned to French Lick Wednesday, 10 days after I left my beloved Green Angel with her busted leg, and flew home courtesy of Angelo. They put us up on them in the "Presidential Suite" on the Top Floor of West Baden Springs, under the dome. It was spectacular. The room was big enough for 10 and my wife was thoroughly impressed. Dinner was at the 1875 and even trying to "go easy" on them, the bill was about $220. Then Bill the airport manager insisted on meeting me the next morning and filling my wife's car up with gas, no charge. Then he topped off 43W, nearly $300 of AvGas, no charge! I kept insisting that he did not have to do this but he clearly wanted to. Arriving at the airport, the new & rebuilt nose gear was installed perfectly. Did some test hops and all was good. Curtis did a great job.

So ... I got a new $4400 nose gear (total bill, parts and labor) on a 35-year-old plane, $1,000 worth of "reparations," one fine night (enough said about that) and all-in-all a great experience. So many of you were telling me how badly you felt for me when this happened and French Lick, but was I unlucky or unlucky?

Departing IFR that morning, I felt quite lucky, indeed

Dang it! That could have been me!
 
Re: French Lick Insights

Dave,

With your luck the insurance company would have totalled it
 
Re: French Lick Insights

Dave,

With your luck the insurance company would have totalled it

Well, now that Scott's got the last nose gear casting, I wouldn't want to see a Commander in a position like that again!
 
No more castings... Machined from billet alum as many as we can pay for...
 
Re: French Lick Insights

---------- They put on a new Torque Tube -------

-------casting. Hmmmmmmm ..... could you fill it or re-pour it with something and redrill? Drill it round and insert a sleeve? I cannot imagine the latter working for long, it is already a weak link.

O.K. Birdstrike----"not casting----"machined billet," but that is harder to spell! I was offered the option of drilling out to a larger hole on the top scissor attach point on the Torque Tube and buy larger bushings. My concern was just that, a larger hole reducing the strength of the attachment point leading to a Scott type failure so I did not do that. I was also uncomfortable of always having to buy new bushing of a different type that stock for this attach point. (I used gold foil and filled the space between the bushing and the billet material. No problema.:)
 
Scott's accident was on the unusual side. I expect that a qualified repair shop could propose and get FAA approval for a repair that involved boring a non-cracked elongated hole slightly oversize and using a thin wall drill bushing type of sleeve as a permanent insert such that the original spec'd hole would be established and std bushings would also be used in the assy. Of course, this assumes original bore elongation is not too extreme and no cracks/corrosion/damage to original casting. Routine and standard type of repair.
 
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Re: French Lick Insights

It sureseems to me that if one had a truly elongated casting (you know SID has gone totally MIA if he does not comment on that!) ... oh my, where was I ? ... Oh .... if one had an elongated hole in that casting, there would be very noticeable sloppiness and probably vibration in the nosegear steering. I guess many would think this was the shimmy-dampener problem though. Could happen, but for how long?
 
Re: French Lick Insights

From the time I bought 1297J, I always had a shimmy while taxiing at certain speeds and on roll out when the plane slowed down.

I went for a year thinking I had a shimmy dampener problem, had it rebuilt, then had it rebuilt again for I finally figured out that the bushings in the scissor arm were the problem. Had those replaced and now, (especially with my two brand new steering bungies which I replaced after breaking one at French Lick) she handles like a sports car on taxi. Very solid and no wobble what-so-ever.
 
Re: French Lick Insights

Byrne has hit upon it and we often give this advice to new owners. If you can grab that front fork and move it around, why not just replace all that wear hardware at the same time? Areodyme even has a convenient kit with all the bits and pieces in a single bag. Just hand it to your mechanic and done.
 
Re: French Lick Insights

A couple people have asked me about that tow bar the FBO had. I have the same one for use in my hangar and there's noting wrong with the bar itself, but the two pins it comes with don't cut it. They have a very slight taper for about the last quarter inch and that's barely enough to grip the wheel axle.

I pulled those out and grabbed a bolt and then put a heavy duty electrical heat shrink over the end. This fits into the axle as far as the bolt head/nut and will not scratch the axle at all.

I tried to explain this to the manager at the airport when I arrived but didn't have the picture available.
 

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Re: French Lick Insights

Glenn,

What company makes the tow bar? I am looking for something better and what I mean is something a little more substantial. That looks like a great solution.
 
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