Sunday, November 09, 2008
How have the oversize tires and spats worked out?
At the start of this blog I explained that I planned to fit oversize tires. I hasten to add that I am certainly not the first to do this in the UK, since I have been credited with this as my idea. I just brazenly steal a good idea.
The reason for this posting is, that I now have about 40 hours, and rather more importantly 80 landings, under my belt in G-IKON, I am beginning to have some experience as to how they handle the dirt. Before I go further, all 80 of these landings have been on grass. G-IKON does not yet know that hard runways exist. Just under half these are at my 1020' home strip which you can see here . Its a heavy clay soil and suffers the normal amount of UK rain. Its mown with a lawn tractor until July, and after a crop of grass has been taken from the rest of the field is maintained by my mowing team until the following spring.
For those of you who dont know sheep, they tend to cover the field in shit, and this has the adhesive properties of proseal! Recent discussion on Vansairforce at this thread , caused me to use an unflyable autumn day, to take a look inside one of the spats. What I found was good news!
There was very little dirt on the inside of the spat,just a few grass blades picked up off the runway.
The disc was clean, and the surrounding parts no more grubby than you would expect. It was pleasing to see that there are no witness marks on the tires indicating they are touching on either side, front or rear. Despite the oversize tires, I did not install spacer washers as is sometimes thought necessary, to keep the caliper from touching the tire, and at this stage do not feel it necessary.
The front half of the spat was similarly grubby as you would expect, but with no build up of mud.
I appear to have slightly less clearance above the spat than I intended when I started out building them, but since all is working well and they appear not to produce much drag I will leave what appears to work well, alone.
Quote of the day. I am a bit late with this, but as the US turns a corner and starts to regain some moral stature in the world:
"As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?" --Sarah Palin
The reason for this posting is, that I now have about 40 hours, and rather more importantly 80 landings, under my belt in G-IKON, I am beginning to have some experience as to how they handle the dirt. Before I go further, all 80 of these landings have been on grass. G-IKON does not yet know that hard runways exist. Just under half these are at my 1020' home strip which you can see here . Its a heavy clay soil and suffers the normal amount of UK rain. Its mown with a lawn tractor until July, and after a crop of grass has been taken from the rest of the field is maintained by my mowing team until the following spring.
For those of you who dont know sheep, they tend to cover the field in shit, and this has the adhesive properties of proseal! Recent discussion on Vansairforce at this thread , caused me to use an unflyable autumn day, to take a look inside one of the spats. What I found was good news!
While some mud grass and sheep shit had built up at the rear of the tire, nothing too excessive. To some extent, it was fitting around the tire so nothing large will enter the spat. Despite my earlier comment it easily knocks away with a screwdriver (or a stone off the runway).
The front half of the spat was similarly grubby as you would expect, but with no build up of mud.
Quote of the day. I am a bit late with this, but as the US turns a corner and starts to regain some moral stature in the world:
"As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?" --Sarah Palin
