Landing on one wheel

Dudley Henriques wrote in
:

john smith wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote:
The spring type one piece main gear legs are as you say much better
suited to taking any side loads that might be imposed then an oleo
leg.
In this scenario, the principal negative is excessive tire wear due
to
scrubbing.

Ah! But what about the wheelpants? :-))


My guess would be that if a pilot is catching a pant while attempting
a
one wheel landing, that pilot is in wind WAY over their head :-))))


Zachery. I had a nasty experience somewhat realted to this about ten
years ago in my Luscombe. I had bought a pair of wheel pants form
Wagaero. Fiberglass ones. The field I fly from is a bit muddy so I
fiberglassed a pair of "dams" in the back just behind the wheel to
prevent mud building up inside of the pants.
Anyhow. i dropped a friend at a paved strip to collect is airplane and
while taxiing in I noticed it was pulling to one side a bit. It had
mechanical brakes so I got out the tools and let the cable on that side
slack a bit and went to go home. It was very windy. About 25 knots with
a fair bit of crosswind from the right ( the left wheel was pulling a
bit still, but not what I considered significant) I rolled and just as I
rotated the airplane lurched left with a god awful screech. Airborne and
catching my wind, I climbed away and wondered WTF that was all about. A
bit later I looked out at my left wheel and saw my wheel pant pointing
straight down! ****.
I flew back to my home base. The wind there couldn't have been more
favorable. It was about 25 knots, about 25 degrees off the runway
heading from the right. I was able to touch down and keep my left wing
up almost to walking pace, when the left wheel came down and I did a
gentle groundloop to the left. Very little damage to the pant, BTW. The
bracket broke and a bit of fiberglass was ground away is all.
Couple of interesting points about it were; the field I went to was
unpaved and also uninhabited, so no emergency services if I had hurt
myself. (No radio on this ship) However, my friend had seen the incident
from the ground and called his wife to be at the field when I arrived. I
did have the presence of mind to try and ensure that the impact , if I
did flip it, wouldn't ruin my looks. I took off my glasses and took the
pen out of my pocket. I thought about using the vacant seat cushion on
the panel just in case, but couldn't figure a way to fasten it there. (
no shoulder harness) Anyhow, I got away with it and no real harm done.
The cause, of course, was one of those dams I had put inside the pant
coming adrift and lodging itself between the wheel and the pant.

Bertie