N36KJ Flies First Time

[Maverick]

Thought I'd add an update. Lots has been learned.

After trying to keep the plane from rolling up into a ball with me in it, I decided to change the landing gear. I had a 27" gear. Currently the factory supplies a 22" gear so, I bought one and swapped them out. The 22" was what I had on N49FK back in 03'. This made a difference. I can now see over the cowling and get less bounce. The sad part is that I didn't notice the elevator angle deflection until after the gear change. The most significant change was the adjustment to the elevator deflection. I had found it hard to get the nose up on landings and subsequently to slow down. I checked the elevator deflection and discovered that I had flipped the numbers on my rigging. I was only getting 25 degrees up and 39 down. Admitting this is embarrassing but, hopefully my admitted mistake will keep someone else from disaster. I made the adjustments and now am able to really slow down on landings touching down between 40-45mph rather than 50-55.

If I had been able to slow down better, the taller gear might have been fine. Since I wasn't able to get the nose up and slow down enough it made it so the plane wanted to fly more than I did when touching down. I made a few landings that scared the bejesus out of some of the other tail-dragger pilots on the field. I can't adequately describe how I felt on my last landing with the taller gear. On that one, I got a wind gust at just the wrong time and scraped the tips of both of my wings on the runway but was able to get stopped before any serious damage was done. When I cleared the runway, the ATC guy cleared me to the ramp and asked, N36KJ do you need any toilet paper?

Both wing tips had about a 1" scrape on the outside trailing edge that one might not even notice if you didn't know to look for them in the first place. I think had I had the elevator rigging right in the first place, the taller gear would have been fine. I just dodged a bullet on the elevator rigging.

I've done enough landings with the 22" gear and more elevator authority that I'm comfortable so, I'm ready to leave the traffic pattern and get out into my test area and start the other testing.

[bbs428]

Wow! Glad you and the plane are in one piece! Holy bat S#%* !! I can see myself making that miscalculation. Appreciate the feedback.

[Sahota]

Sounds like you did well hanging on to it!

[Maverick]

Good idea Steve. Any one have a ingenious solution to this enigma? Some way of reducing the vibration on these wires?

[DesertFox4]

Common problem Fred. Likely needed better strain relief on those wires in it’s previous life. Secure both electronic module wiring after your repair. Pretty windy inside that cowling.