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A friend is considering purchasing this 6A that had a nose collapse. Attached is the rod after reinforcement plus motor/prop rebuild. The fairing isn’t installed in the image.

Is this something that the 6A is experiencing? Weakness?

Is this a proper van’s approved fix?

TIA
Howard R.
 

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[email protected] said:
A friend is considering purchasing this 6A that had a nose collapse. Attached is the rod after reinforcement plus motor/prop rebuild. The fairing isn’t installed in the image.

Is this something that the 6A is experiencing? Weakness?

Is this a proper van’s approved fix?

TIA
Howard R.
Click to expand...
That is the AntiSplat Nose Job. Not Van's approved, but many like it. https://antisplataero.com/product/the-nose-job-2/

Several (many?) RV-XA models have flipped over. Much debate over cause and many threads on the issue.

Link to the 2007 nose gear leg and fork upgrade SB: https://www.vansaircraft.com/service-information-and-revisions/sb-07-11-09/

In 2019 Van's started offering a new elastomer nose gear leg and engine mount design, but would involve more work to retrofit to an RV-6A. See the note in this Van's SL: https://www.vansaircraft.com/service-information-and-revisions/sl-19-04-30/
 
Last edited:
[email protected] said:
A friend is considering purchasing this 6A that had a nose collapse. Attached is the rod after reinforcement plus motor/prop rebuild. The fairing isn’t installed in the image.

Is this something that the 6A is experiencing? Weakness?

Is this a proper van’s approved fix?

TIA
Howard R.
Click to expand...
I built a 6A, it’s been flying since 2004 off grass for the 1st 16 years, I moved to a paved strip a few years ago. I do not have a stiffener on the nose gear, I have never had an issue (knock wood). I did perform the SB on the nose fork and gear leg. A friend bent the nose gear on his 6A landing on a paved strip, he bounced it on the nose wheel.
I am a firm believer that landing technique has a huge influence on the survival of the nose gear.
YMMV.
 
RV8JD said:
That is the AntiSplat Nose Job. Not Van's approved, but many like it. https://antisplataero.com/product/the-nose-job-2/

Several (many?) RV-XA models have flipped over. Much debate over cause and many threads on the issue.

Link to the 2007 nose gear leg and fork upgrade SB: https://www.vansaircraft.com/service-information-and-revisions/sb-07-11-09/

In 2019 Van's started offering a new elastomer nose gear leg and engine mount design, but would involve more work to retrofit to an RV-6A. See the note in this Van's SL: https://www.vansaircraft.com/service-information-and-revisions/sl-19-04-30/
Click to expand...
Thank you! I’m serving as a disinterested 2nd party. Not super close to 6A and the guidance is appreciated.

HR
 
Skid said:
I built a 6A, it’s been flying since 2004 off grass for the 1st 16 years, I moved to a paved strip a few years ago. I do not have a stiffener on the nose gear, I have never had an issue (knock wood). I did perform the SB on the nose fork and gear leg. A friend bent the nose gear on his 6A landing on a paved strip, he bounced it on the nose wheel.
I am a firm believer that landing technique has a huge influence on the survival of the nose gear.
YMMV.
Click to expand...
Skid,
Technique is indeed king. Rosie told me years ago that the secret to ground handling an "A" model was to get the nose wheel off the ground as soon as possible, and keep it off the ground as long as possible. He considers the nose gear to be more of a taxi aid than a landing gear.
 
[email protected] said:
Thank you! I’m serving as a disinterested 2nd party. Not super close to 6A and the guidance is appreciated.

HR
Click to expand...
Here is some info for your friend, who I assume is a pilot new to RVs. Below are links to a collection of articles by Van himself on flying RVs. These should be useful for all RV pilots, but especially pilots new to RVs.

Note the one titled "How to Fly a Nose Gear RV".

- How to Fly an RV
- Taking Off
- After Liftoff - What Now?
- How to Land an RV
- How Land an RV - Part 2
- How to Fly a Nose Gear RV
- A Slow Flying Epistle
- Flying Heavy
- Casual Formation Flying
- An Aerobatic Epistle
- IAC Aerobatics in RVs (with a sidebar on preparing your RV for aerobatic flight by Ron Schreck)

Also, nothing beats thorough Transition Training in whatever RV you have, not just a couple of 'aircraft checkout' flights.
 
RV8JD said:
That is the AntiSplat Nose Job. Not Van's approved, but many like it. https://antisplataero.com/product/the-nose-job-2/

Several (many?) RV-XA models have flipped over. Much debate over cause and many threads on the issue.

Link to the 2007 nose gear leg and fork upgrade SB: https://www.vansaircraft.com/service-information-and-revisions/sb-07-11-09/

In 2019 Van's started offering a new elastomer nose gear leg and engine mount design, but would involve more work to retrofit to an RV-6A. See the note in this Van's SL: https://www.vansaircraft.com/service-information-and-revisions/sl-19-04-30/
Click to expand...
I have completed and am flying the elastomer nose gear retrofit on my 6A. Van's personnel understand that the original nose gear is a weakness - hence this retrofit is now available for the 6A. I have posted pictures and text related to my conversion.
 
Not to disagree with the new nose gear I had my 6 a in Baja for 10 years. Hit some ruts where my head hit the canopy but always kept the stick back. Like others have said it is how you fly it
 
RV8JD said:
Here is some info for your friend, who I assume is a pilot new to RVs. Below are links to a collection of articles by Van himself on flying RVs. These should be useful for all RV pilots, but especially pilots new to RVs.

Note the one titled "How to Fly a Nose Gear RV".

- How to Fly an RV
- Taking Off
- After Liftoff - What Now?
- How to Land an RV
- How Land an RV - Part 2
- How to Fly a Nose Gear RV
- A Slow Flying Epistle
- Flying Heavy
- Casual Formation Flying
- An Aerobatic Epistle
- IAC Aerobatics in RVs (with a sidebar on preparing your RV for aerobatic flight by Ron Schreck)

Also, nothing beats thorough Transition Training in whatever RV you have, not just a couple of 'aircraft checkout' flights.
Click to expand...
He built a tail dragger rv8 & I built an f1 rocket.
 
To summarize what I've personally gleaned from reading, looking at reports, videos, some analysis done here some time back etc.
The conclusions are mine, and I could be wrong. :)

More weight on the nose makes a flip more likely. Vans themselves published a maximum nose weight specification a few years ago.
More weight from: bigger engine, metal and/or CS prop. All of this puts more weight up front. I'm guessing just more weight in general will load the nose leg more when in a bad situation.

The 7A *may* be a bit more likely to have an issue. The 7A typically is heavier, and the main gear is taller. Way back when there was a thread that tried to look at stats, but frankly the number of incidents is so small that there isn't statistical confidence.

The usual axle design of the 6A nose wheel *may* make the 6A more vulnerable. [There are multiple designs out there, early / late from the factory, Anti-Splat, other 3rd parties, and the factory design on the 7A] The axle may be under tightened and the tapered roller bearings *may* bind on a hard landing. Some years ago there was a video of an RV-10 that had the nose wheel lock on landing. Anti-Splat makes a ball bearing conversion, and Van's offers a newer nose wheel axle design - both of which should eliminate this risk.

Operating this tiny nose wheel on any rough field has risks. Think gopher holes, pot holes...

All that said, my 6A insurance is cheaper than if my plane had a tailwheel. So the risk probably is less than ground looping?

Let me repeat, these are my opinions. But I think some of these could have a grain of truth.
I won't get into landing technique as I expect that will be extensively posted by others here :)

Oh, lastly, it wouldn't be impossible to convert it to a tailwheel. Easy, not so much, but not impossible.
 
FYI there’s a. nose gear sticky.

Nose Gear Lessons Learned

Given the recently reported nose gear leg bolt failure, a few of us “VAFers” have concluded that the time has come to summarize “Nose Gear Lessons Learned” at least from our personal perspectives and in the interest of safety for our fellow VAF RV-A builders and fliers. We are talking about...
vansairforce.net vansairforce.net
 
recapen said:
Van's personnel understand that the original nose gear is a weakness - hence this retrofit is now available for the 6A.
Click to expand...
For added clarity.......

Van's understands that the nose gear is a weakness in the context that a lot of people are skills challenged when it comes to proper landing technique of a tricycle gear airplane.
The tri-gear RV's have never been promoted as having a nose gear that can stand up to the abuse that many certificated aircraft used as trainers are (and even then you-tube and insurance auction sites are full of evidence that pilots are fully capable of ripping the nose gear of those airplanes as well).
 
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