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Flat tire on landing - a little western...

airguy

Unrepentant fanboy
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So I went goofing off today with my uncle, just a chance to burn some fuel and recalibrate my head. 0.7 on the hobbs and the sun is going down, time to park it. As soon as the mains touched down on the 30-foot wide pavement I noticed it pulling right, within less than a second it was pulling right A LOT and I knew what was happening. Full left rudder was OK through about 40 knots then left brake and more left brake, to the point I was almost sliding the left wheel coming down through about 10 knots but kept it on the runway. It was swervy to say the least, but I kept it on the pavement.

Pulled the wheelpant, the tube would hold air for about 3 minutes so we just aired it up and used our Rhino tug to pull it back to the hangar, took 2 mid-way stops for more air to get it put away. Datalogs showed it was 14 seconds from wheel contact to full stop, that would have been a rather impressive short-field landing if I hadn't been so busy trying to suck the seat cushion up my butt. My condition inspection was due to start in 2 weeks, I guess this just moved the start point up a bit.

Be careful out there...
 
Ha! I had to call my wife over to read your comment. She laughed too! Good job keeping it in the pavement.

Im getting close to flying too!
 
A dolly and some good luck

My flat in the 9A was similarly exciting. It occurred to me afterward that I had never mentally practiced for the wild ride in an RV with a main gone. Pure gut reaction and some good luck kept me on pavement. After a good Samaritan showed up with a wheel dolly, two other pilots simply got under the wing and we all lifted it, to place the dolly. I later went to Harbor Freight to get my own wheel dolly. I might just be able to help another pilot some day.
 
Your usual tire pressure?

I usually run 35 pounds. I visually inspect the tires before every flight, and it taxied just fine, I'm guessing I finally wore a hole in the tube somewhere during the takeoff roll and it bled down in flight.
 
A little different experience

About a year and a half ago I experienced the opposite tire failure. I did my normal preflight with everything looking normal and a friend and I climbed into the RV then taxied. Taxi seemed slow but nothing truly unusual to either of us. (He was an experienced RV6 owner and Flight instructor.). After engine run up we taxied to the runway and applied power. It started to strongly move to the left. I pulled power and decided to taxi back to the hanger. Guess what! It wouldn?t taxi without pulling hard to the left. We shut down on the runway and got out to check things out. The left tire was completely flat and the bird wasn?t going anywhere without getting weight off the wheel. Low tire pressure resulted in a complete loss of pressure when I turned left cutting the valve stem.

My home airport is a rural, uncontrolled environment but letting it sit on the runway while I got help was real disconcerting. Using a wheel dolly a neighbor had from Harbor Freight and jacking up the left side of the airplane to place the dolly underneath and securing it to the dolly took time. Then it was a slow tow back to the hanger.

Now I check tire pressures when temperatures change in the fall, winter and spring. If my pressures are below 40 psi I add air to bring them to 40 psi. Checking pressures ?at least? three times a year is my personal minimum no matter how they look. What is the rule of thumb ?every 10 degrees equal 1.6 psi change.? Every time I ?ve checked pressures I?ve had to add air. In my case that takes about an hour and a half. That?s still faster than having to get it off the runway the hard way!
 
Tire pressure

I agree on checking 3 times a year
I also take my wheels to my friendly Costco tire bay and have them fill them
With nitrogen during my annual.
It greatly reduces the subsequent need to add air
 
I later went to Harbor Freight to get my own wheel dolly.

That's how I got back to my hangar with my 1st flat. I hope never to have to use them again! Oddly enough, that was the only flat I had that the tube would not hold enough air to even partially inflate the flat. What a character builder.
 
Put baby powder inside of tire before installing tube. Also, inflate and deflate a few times to make sure tube is not kinked. I had a flat twice (no baby powder), once just after run-up, and once when I shut it down in front of hangar. Either way you slice, it?s a pain in the arse.
 
Put baby powder inside of tire before installing tube. Also, inflate and deflate a few times to make sure tube is not kinked. I had a flat twice (no baby powder), once just after run-up, and once when I shut it down in front of hangar. Either way you slice, it?s a pain in the arse.

I did both of those, but it was at the last annual inspection 11.5 months ago. Yesterday I ordered some Desser 6-ply tires and Airstop tubes, the ones I had on the plane are the OEM Vans 4-ply.
 
You can make a no-go gauge for your tire pressure, using 1" PVC pipe.

Inflate (or deflate) your tires to the point where you would want to pull out the compressor and tools to pump them up again. Then make a U-shaped wheel chock with three pieces of PVC, two elbows, and two caps for the free ends. The wheel chock should *just* fit around the tire where it meets the ground.

If the tire pressure gets lower than acceptable, getting the wheel chock in or out suddenly gets a lot harder... And you have instant feedback that you have to add air.

I made two of these and use them as my regular wheel chocks.
 
You can make a no-go gauge for your tire pressure, using 1" PVC pipe.

Inflate (or deflate) your tires to the point where you would want to pull out the compressor and tools to pump them up again. Then make a U-shaped wheel chock with three pieces of PVC, two elbows, and two caps for the free ends. The wheel chock should *just* fit around the tire where it meets the ground.

If the tire pressure gets lower than acceptable, getting the wheel chock in or out suddenly gets a lot harder... And you have instant feedback that you have to add air.

I made two of these and use them as my regular wheel chocks.

Snowflake, I do this exact same thing, works great!!
 
I did both of those, but it was at the last annual inspection 11.5 months ago. Yesterday I ordered some Desser 6-ply tires and Airstop tubes, the ones I had on the plane are the OEM Vans 4-ply.

The Airstop tubes really help keep those air molecules from escaping.
 
Update...

My new tires and tubes showed up so I jumped into the task today. I had a little damage on both main wheel pants from pulling off into soft dirt and a little grinding action on the flat tire side, nothing some touchup paint won't solve. Apparently I picked up some piece of debris on the takeoff roll or very shortly before, in the wheel pant that cut the sidewall of the right main and got through it to the tube. I did not find the offending piece of debris, just the evidence of it's passage. I replaced the Vans OEM tires/tubes with Desser 6-ply retreads and Michelin Airstop tubes. Incidentally - kudos to Desser - they include a small baggy of talc powder with the tubes for convenience, nice to see that. No instructions on how to use it - they expect you to know that already - but it's nice that they include it.

My OEM nosewheel looks like the day I installed it, with 205 hours - guess I'm treating it correctly.

oaQ.jpg


oaT.jpg
 
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RV 10 flat

We had 2. Flat on RV 10 in 12 months not sure why we keeping tyre pressure to 40 psi now .
Just wondering if any has a spare main wheel for sale
Thanks
Charles Mifsud
RV9 and RV10 builder.
 
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