new 8KCAB owner...HELP!

G

garynannini

New member
Help. New 8KCAB owner. Supposed to be the perfect airplane (pe-buy inspection, AP/IA). Went through the annual from HELL (4 times what I figured cost-wise, from a noted Decathlon establishment). Now I had the "perfect airplane". 10 hours later...Whelan strobes don't work. (Fuse box? Fuse ground? Wiring? Fuse switch? Power plant)? Tail wheel shimmy (Scott). (Tire pressure? Spring)? New tire was put on at annual, after 10 hours, no tred. (I'm moving from tricycle to tailwheel, but I'm not landing that bad to take the tred off a tail wheel in 10 hours)! What's goin' on? All help and suggestions will definately be appreciated. Thanks!
Gary
 
Gary:
Not sure what to tell you about the strobes. Tailwheel shimmy is a common problem on these aircraft. There are a number of posts in this site that address this problem. Since this site was updated in January I have not been able to access the search function but some users can. If you can see see the search button you should be able to find lots of good info. Apparently one of the major causes of shimmy is loss of arch in the tailwheel spring but there are other factors too.
Mark
 
Thanks...OK...maybe I was a bit premature on the actual tire...apparently there was no "tred" down the middle...just on the edges, which is very much still there. (And no, I'm not interested in some beachfront property in Arizona). Thanks for your info...lookin' up tail wheel shimmy.
Gary
 
Gary-
I had a bad tail wheel shimmy on my 1995 8KCAB. While looking at the problem, I noticed that the tail wheel itself had very, very slight slop (back and forth). It did not seem significant, but I asked my mechanic to fix it. He was sceptical. It ended up fixing the problem. The slop was magnified by the the tail wheel when it was spinning after landing.
 
Gary,

I bought a new 8KCAB in 2005 and had strobe problems within 30 hours. This plane also had excessive vibration which lead to wires chaffing inside the wings and shorting out on the aluminum ribs. ACA paid to have the local avionics shop do the repairs.

This plane now has 330 hours and still has the original tailwheel tire. I experience some occassional tailwheel shimmy but have never been able to pin down the conditions related to the shimmy. As far as "no tread down the middle" - you may be running too much pressure in the rear tire. Also try unloading the elevator with a nuetral or forward position in lieu of full back after landing - assuming your shimmy problems are on landing roll out and not take off roll.

Good Luck,
Stan Johnson
 
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