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Nosewheel crack

andre mendonca

I'm New Here
I have a RV12 with 310 hours and "made" in 2010. No accidents in her life. My landings are quite smooth and the runway I operate is smooth too.
I can not explain why did it crack. Is it a structural problem? A misscalculation in projecting the part? Or a lack of luck of myself?
I am disappointed whith this plane. I do not feel safe and relaxed flying her. When I fix a problem, my first question is: - When and what will be the next problem? and believe me, it will not take long.
This plane has an oil cooling problem that make all climbs very stressing. If no "steps" are made, temperature will rise to the yellow almost reaching the red strip. My opinion is that the aerodynamic flow of air is not well calculated to cool the engine approprietly even during small climbings (five minutes).
Well, I hope in the near future my RV12 will make me happier.
Have you any other repport of nosewhell support crack like this?
Any suggestions?
Thanks a lot.

Andre Vianna Mendon?a
Brazil
 
Andre,

Sorry to hear you have had some problems. As to this crack, can you be more specific about where it is? A photo would be very helpful. Are you aware of Van's problem reporting procedure, and have you submitted a report?

John
 
One more question after reading Post #2 above. How many hours did your plane have on it when you bought it, and do you know what it was used for (training?) and its operating environment in its previous ownership?
 
Andre,

Sorry to hear about your issues with the plane. I have a friend who has had a number of issues with his SLSA.

On the other hand I built my 12 in 2012 and have had 4 trouble free years flying it. Like all aircraft (and complex machines) there are examples where workmanship issues and random component defects seem to come together in a perfect storm we call a "lemon" in the US. Please don't condemn the fleet on the basis of an anomalous example of one airframe.

Rich
 
The high oil temperature can probably be corrected. You can either purchase the current exhaust system from Van's or a much cheaper option is to modify the cowl duct to move the oil cooler forward and away from the muffler. The new exhaust system moves the muffler away from the cooler also. You need to take a look at the clearance between the oil cooler and muffler and if you don't have and inch or so, that is most likely your problem.
 
WD-1230 Nose Fork Failure

(Meant to post the following reply on this thread)
On 4/15/16 I used my tow bar to hangar my RV-12. I noticed that the tow bar was tilted as I chocked the wheel. I removed the wheel pant and saw large cracks in the same locations on the right fork as Jetguy's postings. My cracks were so large that the top of the tire was rotated several degrees to the pilot's side of the aircraft. Is it a coincidence that all of the cracks that have been reported (that I am aware of) are in the right fork welds of the nose fork assembly? I haven't had my structures guru look at failure but will post his opinions later.

Bob Kibby, RV-12 N712BK 291 hrs 478 Lndgs
 
The high oil temperature can probably be corrected.

There are numerous issues that have been the cause of high oil temps on RV-12's.

A couple of others....

The inlet opening on the cowl not properly trimmed...
The inlet duct not properly sealed to the front face of the radiator...
 
Same as this?? See RV-12 SB 10-12-14.

Yes, at the same side and position. But longer, I would say 3/4 of the total width.
Seeing you photo and other repport of the same kind of problem, I could dare to think that vansaircraft should pay special attention to the nosewheel fork, maybe a recall...
 
There will not be any type of recall action on this part because there was already a Service Bulletin issued.

https://www.vansaircraft.com/pdf/sb10-12-14.pdf

Anyone with a kit that was built with a finish kit prior to the date mentioned in the S.B should have by now inspected the nose wheel fork. Any that were found to have cracks were replaced at no charge to the customer.

The nose fork has undergone extensive load testing. During initial certification, during specific load testing that was done at the request of the FAA after a builder failed the fork in a very poorly executed landing (verified by analysis of the stored flight data), and during the review of the entire landing gear when the re-enforcement modification was developed and tested.
 
N712BK SB RV-12 10-12-14

I received my Airworthiness Certificate on on 4/8/10. I have a log book entry on 12/19/10 (64.6 hrs) where I removed the nose wheel fairing and inspected both sides of WD-1230 nose fork for presence of cracks. No cracks were noted and I returned the a/c to flight status. Since no cracks were noted per the SB no further inspections were required. Per JetGuys post on his cracked fork it is prudent to continue to inspect the nose fork for cracks at every Condition Inspection which I have continued to do.

Bob Kibby N712BK
 
The crack in my fork is exactly as described by you. It reached 3/4 of the width , from down to up. And the tire is tilted many degrees.
 
WD-1230 Nose Fork Failure

Just sent photos of failure to [email protected]. Will let you know what their prognosis is.

Just received the new nose fork assembly and am anxious to get airworthy again.

Bob Kibby N712BK
 
RV-12 N712BK Nose Fork Failure

This is a photo of my nose fork after I removed the wheel pant. Had it not been for the tilted tire I would not have known of the fractured fork and could have had a real disaster on the next attempted flight.

N712BK%20Nose%20wheel%20fork%20failure_zpskdfsmhya.jpg


Haven't heard from Van's on the e-mails I sent on 4/2016 with additional photos of the failure. The right fork broke off completely as I was removing the tire.

Sorry for the delay in posting the photo but had Spousal Surgery to deal with.

Bob Kibby N712BK
 
Wow Bob, that is bad! Remember the old center section buckling, you were the first and when I reported it I was accused of photoshop and phony photos. Will be hard to photoshop this one for sure!!
 
This is a photo of my nose fork after I removed the wheel pant. Had it not been for the tilted tire I would not have known of the fractured fork and could have had a real disaster on the next attempted flight.

N712BK%20Nose%20wheel%20fork%20failure_zpskdfsmhya.jpg


Haven't heard from Van's on the e-mails I sent on 4/2016 with additional photos of the failure. The right fork broke off completely as I was removing the tire.

Sorry for the delay in posting the photo but had Spousal Surgery to deal with.

Bob Kibby N712BK


Can you go into details on what kind of surface you operate out of? Grass? Asphalt? Don said you were the first to report the main landing gear issue after a hard landing, do you think that event contributed to the nose fork failure ? Not to criticize any flying technique but I would think some sort of event would cause failure like that. Not ruling out a manufacture defect at all, but seems that a hard landing could lead to fatigue then failure.
 
N712BK Operating History

Hard landing was On main gear. Out of the 400+ landings maybe 4 or 5 on grass.ldo use the brakes if I need to to make a turn off. Since I built it and have to repair it I try not to mistreat it. Other than the one hard landing mentioned earlier I haven't had a landing where I thought that I should inspect the main or nose landing gear.
Bob Kibby N712BK
 
Don't want to start an argument here, but its very hard for me to imagine that in that hard landing you could come down hard enough to damage structure in the main landing gear area without spreading the main gear and banging the noewheel on the runway as well. I'm guessing there was hidden damage that has worsened with repeated normal stressing since then.
 
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Don't want to start an argument here, but its very hard for me to image that in that hard landing you could come down hard enough to damage structure in the main landing gear area without spreading the main gear and banging the noewheel on the runway as well. I'm guessing there was hidden damage that has worsened with repeated normal stressing since then.

My thoughts as well.
 
RV-12 N712BK Nose Fork Failure Update

On Wednesday April 20 I sent two e-mails with photos and descriptions of my RV-12 nose fork failure to Van's support. Since I hadn?t received any acknowledgement I sent a follow-up e-mail on April 26. I received a reply from Van?s on April 26 indicating that no one recalled seeing my previous e-mails and that a change in their email program may have caused the problem. Van?s also asked for my damaged nose fork which I shipped Priority Mail and should be delivered to Van?s on Friday. They also asked about SB compliance, number of landings, landing surface, ect so I referred them to this thread which has all that info. Van?s also asked for my EFIS data which I am currently getting downloaded and will send to them tomorrow.
I think the reason for the fork failure will be pretty obvious from inspection of the welds. I also suggested that Van?s do a load test to failure of the left fork to see how those welds fail.
Bob Kibby ?N712BK?
 
N712BK failed nose fork delivered to Van's

Just received the following from Van's:

Your nose fork arrived today. Thanks very much for sending that to us. Our engineering crew as well as our welding crew will be inspecting it early next week.

Bob Kibby N712BK
 
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