anyone have experience with castering main gear ?

[fairchild]

I tried to google info on what effect of having full castering main gear would be--- (like the wilga-) but I can find NOTHING...……
I think I have a rough idea of what the idea is---- but id like to hear how much it helps and what the drawbacks are ..... I looked on the airbum pi-reps -- but nothing there.....
Wondering if they have possible aplication in our relm here ? I woudl think it would be pretty easy to fab up. But what the heck would the finished product be like ?
What is it like when you want to make a direction change going down the runway ? Does the rudder have the same effect ? Could you accidently be going straight down the
centerline but the plane is 90 degrees off the centerline ? Will the rudder un-do THAT ? Rudder and brake ???? How well does it work in real life as opposed to in some
engineer's head ?

Tim

[Wyo Johnson]

You'd give up a bunch of useful load in two ways, physical weight of the gear and CG range as you would be adding more weight to the nose.

See the videos on Draco as it is a "super" Wilga with a PT-6 and he had to redesign the gear, not because the weight of the mods but because the design isn't really that good...nobody uses it really since the Wilga. To keep the gear from twisting, you would need a lot of structure...which again would mean weight. Draco's builder through a couple million at it...

My 2 cents worth...

Andy

[JimParker256]

Some of the Cessna 195s have "crosswind gear" that is something like what you're describing. From what I've read, I have the impression that the "castering" is limited to a few degrees, and re-aligns with the fuselage as weight goes on the gear. It seems like it's supposed to overcome "slight misalignment" with the runway on landing, but not act like an IKEA shopping cart (all four wheels are castering), so I think it highly unlikely that you would ever be in a situation where the wheels were "rolling" 90 degrees different than the fuselage alignment.

Personally, I wouldn't want it just because of the extra weight, but also in part because I've read stories about it that lead me to believe it was more of a solution in search of a problem than something really necessary or desirable. But some 195 pilots swear by it, and I'm a neophyte tailwheel pilot, so what do I know?

If you're really interested in the idea, I'd reach out to the Cessna 195 community, and see what help they could provide. (As well as whether or not it's something that might worth pursuing to you.)

[Jim Douglass]

I owned a Cessna 170 with crosswind gear back in the day. I lived in Cheyenne at the time where strong winds are an everyday occurrence I also owned a Cessna 195 for 16 years--but with conventional gear.
I did not like the crosswind gear primarily because it could't accommodate wheel pants. The other reason was pushing the airplane backwards into the hanger was the principal time one or both of the wheels "kicked out". I don't think ever had the gear "kick out" on landing but it would sometimes "kick out" on taxi in strong winds.
If you crosswind land with crosswind gear in the same manner would land with conventional gear the crosswind gear wouldn't "kick out". I had an instructor demonstrate the crosswind gear but it felt weird to me going straight on the runway with the nose pointing a different direction. I don't recall how far the gear would caster but the maximum was probably 10-20 degrees--never close to 90 degrees

[Peter Bishton]

Gents do you have any photos of the 195 crosswind gear ?
regards peter

[Mark Moyle]

Cool topic. Gerhard Rieger is using Cessna axles which I think is cool because you can shim to perfect alignment. Looks like the Cessna 195 crosswing set up bolts onto the spring gear just like the standard Cessna axles. Anything you discover....Please keep us in the loop. Especially interested due to our 13.1 wind speed average here...which is more like 20+ mph most of the time....mid summer is clam-ish.

[tailwind]

I would not go there. At least not with the Goodyear set. I owned a Cessna 195 and the first thing I did was remove the crosswinds and replace them with Cleveland’s. The brakes are poor at best and the brake pucks and clips are hard to find. You need to replace them every year because as they wear you can loose your brakes. The brake disk floats in its housing on clips held in with push in buttons. If you loose a button and a clip falls out the disk can become cocked in the housing and lock up a wheel. They will break out in a crosswind landing and allow you to land in the three point position at a 25 degree angle to the center line and roll out straight down the center line. I might still have a repair manual. I hope the pictures come through.

[fairchild]

That looks like an interesting idea that was kind of poorly executed or maybe needed some more years of refinement.....
When you say it would "break-out"..... did it have some kind of tensioned detent so that when the side forces climbed-- it would unlock ?

[tailwind]

It’s been 20 years since I had one apart. Seems like there is a short stub axle with a pivot pin that allows the axle to pivot forward and back.