Landing gear help

R

rackley

New member
Hello All,

I am new to the world of Citabrias and have just purchased a 69 7GCAA. It flies beautifully until the landing roll out. I am an average aviator with a fair amount of tailwheel time, but this has been a humbling experience when landing on pavement.

So my mechanic has tried to align the gear with shims, but it is still very squirrelly. Wheel landings are fine if I touch down on one wheel(right). As soon as the left wheel touches down it wants to go for the weeds. 3pt landings are like a box of chocolates(you don't know what you're going to get.)

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Is this a situation where I should consider a new gear or are there other options to straighten the gear?

Thanks,
Rich Ackley
 
Could you inadvertently be applying left brakes? If you are two pointing with your left wing high, you are using some left rudder input. My experience has been that most directional control problems originate at the tail wheel or brakes.

Bill
 
You say your mechanic has "tried" to align the gear. It needs to be aligned in toe in and camber, you can buy tapered shims for this.
If it cannot be aligned you may have bent gear, they can be straightened. Ron at Rainbow Flying does it for one.
If it is all correct Citabrias are very easy handling aircraft.
 
The Citabria is the easiest landing tailwheel I've ever flown. Aligning the gear is a tricky little project, you have to make sure the mechanic knows what he is doing before he tries, or he will just be spending time.

Camber isn't nearly as important as toe for what you are describing. It sounds like you have quite a bit of toe-out in the left main.

To start, measure from a specfic point on the main gear to two or three centered points on the airframe (Tailwheel spring bolt is a good one) to make sure the gear/gearbox isn't tweaked. Then the airplane needs to be leveled, and the toe checked. I used a laser level to project a point off the brake disc onto the airplane to help visualize where both wheels were pointed.
 
Thanks for the input. I have added a shim which seems to be helping, but it is not quite right yet.

Rich Ackley
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top