piperpainter wrote:Just like others have said. You can't always stop stupid! I at least gave the warning to this guy....anyone want to guess??

N80288


Okay his nose strut is flat...dead flat. I let him know it was flat, he acknowledged and said "oh it's cause I came from the high country of WY." When I gave him a mechanics number, of whom would have happily come out to the field....and in fact later came out to fly himself....he took the number said thanks and that he'd be around the area so he'd get in touch. Then took off....came back later....landed and took off. I'm just waiting to show up and see it tied down with a bent firewall. You can't always stop stupid.

With care, the bent firewall can be avoided. Two years ago, when I landed at Marble, the nose strut deflated on touching it down. I let it ride out to keep from putting more stress on it than if I'd braked much. I'm glad that I didn't plop the nose gear down--just gently lowered it like usual, and that's when I realized it was deflated.

When I taxied to take off 2 days later, I taxied slowly, and of course used a soft field take off to raise the nose as soon as possible. When I landed at Greeley, I set the nose gear down softly again. My IA fixed the strut upon returning (the seal had twisted, so just airing it wouldn't have worked), but to protect things in the future, I strapped a chunk of heavy hose around the strut. Even if it collapses, the strut won't bottom.

Cary

See the difference between your story and his is that he took off and landed then took off again. He was just flying around...not sure what he was doing. But he did fill up, come back fill up and left again. He wasn't planning to fly to a place and have it fixed. He just kept flying as usual. I agree, if for some god known reason I ever have a plane with a strut then I'll be putting one of those rubber things on it as well. Justin (dudesickle) has one and I think it's a great idea to keep the firewall a little safer!