I had a tire let go on Saturday right after touchdown. I ended up just off the edge of our 75ft runway. It was pretty hairy. I didn't ground loop but but I was basically along for the ride. They closed the runway till a few guys came and helped me push it out of the way. Glad my plane is small and light. Ended up putting the flat on a furniture mover and towing it back to the hangar. The worst part was I had a EAA Young Eagle with me. He was an 8 year old kid on his very first airplane ride. The only thing he said is why did we stop way out here? At least he will have the best story of the day to tell. I had the tire off and tube replaced by the end of the day and flew a 1.8 on Sunday and did 4 uneventful landings.

I'm really thankful I was not landing off airport when this happened, as the outcome may have been a bent airplane. I was also really lucky it was the Young Eagles day as we had lots of members on hand and I was able to call for help right away on my radio. I think they only suspended flight ops for about 10 minutes till we got it past the hold short line on a taxiway. Couple people had to go around...no biggie

Lessons learned..Blowing a tire in a taildragger is sporty! Lesson two....get off my butt and get my new tubeless tires, and Matco brakes installed!!!

Congrats on a great landing! If it had been me that young eagle would have learned some new words!

Glad it all worked out fine!

But......"75ft runway"?

58Skylane wrote:Glad it all worked out fine!

But......"75ft runway"?

That's a Super STOL airplane! Heh heh... I think he meant 75 foot wide.

58Skylane wrote:Glad it all worked out fine!

But......"75ft runway"?

Ya it's tight you better be on speed when you cross the threshold...hahaha. Yes 75ft wide although I think with about a 10kt headwind I could get stopped in 75 ft.

AvidFlyer wrote:I had a tire let go on Saturday right after touchdown. I ended up just off the edge of our 75ft runway. It was pretty hairy. I didn't ground loop but but I was basically along for the ride. They closed the runway till a few guys came and helped me push it out of the way. Glad my plane is small and light. Ended up putting the flat on a furniture mover and towing it back to the hangar. The worst part was I had a EAA Young Eagle with me. He was an 8 year old kid on his very first airplane ride. The only thing he said is why did we stop way out here? At least he will have the best story of the day to tell. I had the tire off and tube replaced by the end of the day and flew a 1.8 on Sunday and did 4 uneventful landings.

I'm really thankful I was not landing off airport when this happened, as the outcome may have been a bent airplane. I was also really lucky it was the Young Eagles day as we had lots of members on hand and I was able to call for help right away on my radio. I think they only suspended flight ops for about 10 minutes till we got it past the hold short line on a taxiway. Couple people had to go around...no biggie

Lessons learned..Blowing a tire in a taildragger is sporty! Lesson two....get off my butt and get my new tubeless tires, and Matco brakes installed!!!

Nice save Joey. I can't help wondering if that was the same tire we helped you pull off that day in the hangar?? Les Schwabb??

Yup same damn tire.. Les Schwab is a popular tire chain the NorthWest. My current tires are used on Golf Carts and other Turf type vehicles. They were the only ones around with a tube for it. The tube they put in had a straight rubber valve stem instead of a 45 degree bent metal one. I think the wheel had it's way with it...hard telling. They replaced it for free no questions asked so I'm thinking it was either a faulty tube or install issue. My wheels are a split rim type with the valve stem coming right through the middle. It's not hard to pinch the tube. I put in my last set and it was a PIA..that's why I paid someone to do this time... It's hard telling what happened...I should have my tubeless tires on soon then it will be a non factor. I had over 200 uneventful landings before this happened so it's not like I'm sitting on a time bomb. I've seen certified stuff go flat too.

Avid,

I was wondering if this was the smooth tires we were talking about. The aviation division at my local tire store hooked me up with metal stem tubes (though still straight). 118 hrs no problem.

Glad it turned out ok.

k

No the tires are Carlisle 4 ply 8.00X6 that are on there now. I have metal stems in them now. I have all my parts for the gear conversion to run the new tires and brakes I just need to find the time to do it. I have to pull out my rudder bars and weld some tabs on for the master cylinders to attach to and I still need to finish the fairings and get the gear legs painted up then I can put it all together.

I thought you were going to put the nanking tires on. If so, don't use a tube, put the tire right on the atv wheels. Once in a while I loose a little air in the right tire, it holds 8lbs. of air, no big deal I just pump a little air back in, I have a bike pump in the back of the plane for doing so. I thought of going to aviation wheels and quickly said no after having a tube stem pull out of my nose wheel in the RV. I'm keepng the nanking and atv wheels with NO tube. The way I fly my plane, wheelies and such, there is no way I'll trust a tube.

There is one more advantage to the ATV setup, better wheel seals for the bearings. Now that I have aviation wheels on the RV it really sucks to see how much junk gets into the bearing because of the rotten seals on aviation bearings. The atv setup has standard lip seals, keeps all the junk out.

Slyfox my Nanco Tires that are going on my new gear DO NOT have tubes. The turf tires I'm currently running do though. They make some really cool CO2 inflators for the Mt Bike crowd now. They are tiny and one $.99 cent cartridge will fill a tire up several times. Check them out here http://www.amazon.com/Ravx-Inflator-Co2 ... B0010T07AI