carbon fiber wing wheel dolly

On Jul 28, 7:37*am, Bob Kuykendall wrote:

I think that carbon sleeve over EPS or EPP rod would indeed do the
trick for the arm. If you were serious about it, you'd have a high-
pressure female mold, and mold the part by inflating a plastic bladder
inside the sleeve material, but the male molded part would be almost
as stiff and easier and cheaper to make for just one or two.

All far too complicated!

When I built my wing wheel I prototyped the legs with 3/4 inch
schedule 40 pvc pipe. The idea was to get the geometry right then
make to final legs from aluminium square tube. It turned out the sched
40 pvc was perfect for the job. It is dimensionally stable, has just
the right amount of spring, and does no damage anything it bangs or
rubs against. The protype legs have lasted 8 years. They will be
changed this winter for a design that allows height adjustment but
I'll use the same material.

Andy (GY)

On Jul 28, 10:35*am, Andy wrote:
On Jul 28, 7:37*am, Bob Kuykendall wrote:

I think that carbon sleeve over EPS or EPP rod would indeed do the
trick for the arm. If you were serious about it, you'd have a high-
pressure female mold, and mold the part by inflating a plastic bladder
inside the sleeve material, but the male molded part would be almost
as stiff and easier and cheaper to make for just one or two.

All far too complicated!

When I built my wing wheel I prototyped the legs with 3/4 inch
schedule 40 pvc pipe. *The idea was to get the geometry right then
make to final legs from aluminium square tube. It turned out the sched
40 pvc was perfect for the job. *It is dimensionally stable, has just
the right amount of spring, and does no damage anything it bangs or
rubs against. *The protype legs have lasted 8 years. *They will be
changed this winter for a design that allows height adjustment but
I'll use the same material.

Andy (GY)

How about pictures Andy, Any place you could post them for others to
view?

Windward performance makes a wing wheel for the Sparrowhawk that uses
two skate wheels. It's really neat and has a natural spring arc made
out of carbon fiber and fiberglass with two skate wheels on the
bottom. It pivots 360 deg for which every way you drag the
sailplane. Yes the wing is only 42 lbs so it might not scale up to
full weighted sailplanes. Sorry I have no photos but I thought it
might be an interesting idea out there for those entrepreneurs. It
does not fold but stores well as it is small. Just an idea that you
don't have to use a bike tire like every one else.
JOhn

On Jul 28, 7:12*pm, flyingmr2 wrote:
Windward performance makes a wing wheel *for the Sparrowhawk that uses
two skate wheels. *It's really neat and has a natural spring arc made
out of carbon fiber and fiberglass with two skate wheels on the
bottom. *It pivots 360 deg for which every way you drag the
sailplane. *Yes the wing is only 42 lbs so it might not scale up to
full weighted sailplanes. * Sorry I have no photos but I thought it
might be an interesting idea out there for those entrepreneurs. It
does not fold but stores well as it is small. *Just an idea that you
don't have to use a bike tire like every one else.
JOhn

I love the Windward wing wheel setup. I saw it at Mountain Valley
(Tehachapi) and it handled the gopher holes just fine!

On Jul 28, 7:12*pm, flyingmr2 wrote:
Windward performance makes a wing wheel *for the Sparrowhawk that uses
two skate wheels. *It's really neat and has a natural spring arc made
out of carbon fiber and fiberglass with two skate wheels on the
bottom. *It pivots 360 deg for which every way you drag the
sailplane. *Yes the wing is only 42 lbs so it might not scale up to
full weighted sailplanes. * Sorry I have no photos but I thought it
might be an interesting idea out there for those entrepreneurs. It
does not fold but stores well as it is small. *Just an idea that you
don't have to use a bike tire like every one else.
JOhn

But like Tom says, there's a problem when it's too light.

I "kludge" repaired a Sparrowhawk wing wheel. Owner added weight to
top of wing to keep it down. This caused composite to slowly grind
away near radius and further weaken. At least for moving the glider on
pavement in stronger conditions, the composite spring isn't strong
enough to allow adding the needed weight,

bumper
MKIV & QV
Minden

On Jul 28, 12:32*pm, SoaringXCellence wrote:

How about pictures Andy, *Any place you could post them for others to
view?

I dug out a couple of photos and will send them to you if you email
me. My RAS address is valid.

I don't have a photo sharing account.

Andy

On Jul 29, 9:58*am, Andy wrote:
On Jul 28, 12:32*pm, SoaringXCellence wrote:

How about pictures Andy, *Any place you could post them for others to
view?

I dug out a couple of photos and will send them to you if you email
me. *My RAS address is valid.

I don't have a photo sharing account.

Andy

I'd love to see some pictures, too. Unfortunately, I don't have
anywhere
to post them either.

Last year at Cordele the guy parked next to me had a homemade wing
wheel.
He'd used a couple of pieces of copper tubing bent into a U-shape and
flattened
at the ends so he could run the bicycle wheel axle through them. He
attached
the bottom part of the U's to an old skateboard. The whole
contraption got
put on the wing with some bungy cords. It worked fine for him,
although
it didn't hold the plane level. That would have been a problem if he
wasn't
flying club class (no ballast).

-- Matt

On Jul 29, 9:01*am, mattm wrote:

I'd love to see some pictures, too. *

I posted them to SSA where they can be seen by non members as well as
members.

Go to SSA home page http://www.ssa.org/
then select "About Soaring" / "Photo Gallery"
They currently show at the top of the page.

Members can find me and then go to my gallery

One photo is a duplicate. I have not yet found out how to delete a
photo I posted or how to edit the text after posting.

Andy

Andy...it's been a few years now.... did you redesign the wing wheel to allow height adjustment? If so, please post pics on SSA as before..

Mike V
N171XX