Q-talk 89 - Q-tips Builder Hints
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- Category: Q-Talk Articles
- Published: Wednesday, 23 December 2009 16:24
- Written by Tom Moore - Frisco TX
- Hits: 2655
I thought I'd pass along a tip that might improve the ground handling of your Q2/Q-200. If you remember my article in Q-TALK # 67,1 made an adjustment to my camber and toe after about 10 hours of initial flight time. The change made a dramatic improvement in the ground handling on rollout. It was such a big change to the positive that I didn't pursue any other improvements. I still had to be very attentive when landing. During the rollout, the plane still had what I'd call a "Twitch". It was a crisp desire to change directions, either to the left or right all of a sudden. It wasn't real strong, but it was consistent, and it made you react with a rudder dance to compensate. I just got used to it and never thought much about it. I had heard all of the problem stories so I just accepted it. I was having fun flying the plane and so that's where I decided I would leave it.
Well, after about three years of flying, I got the feeling the twitch was getting worse. While trying to figure out what would cause this negative characteristic, I started thinking about the wheel bearings. My conclusion was that they were wearing out. I jacked up one side of the canard to get the tire off of the ground. I grabbed the tire to see if there was any side-to-side movement and sure enough, there was. I took the wheel off and checked the bearings, but they seemed to be fine. I put the axle in the bearings and surprise, surprise, the problem was in the axle. After checking both sides, I found my left wheel was worse than the right. I'm not talking about major slop, I'm only talking about a few thousandths of an inch when measuring the axle for a tight fit. I had some new axles made and no more twitch. If you feel your plane is showing something similar to what I've described above, you might want to check the axles for excessive play.
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