[STEVE]

STEVE on April 5, 2020 at 9:59 am #19836

Wes,
That’s great news. Glad it was a simple fix. Thanks for getting back to me.
Best,
Steve

[Wes Yockey]

Wes Yockey on April 5, 2020 at 4:39 am #19835

Ok, what I found was that the square bracket that holds the Rubber Stopper on the Nose Link (that is concave to seat to the strut tube) was loose, so that it rotated and did not seat in the concave to tube manner. Also complicating this was the fact that the strut and rubber had a large amount of grease, oil and dirt from the engine change out so that the nose wheel could easily move and in turn cause the uncoordinated flight, as the nose would slide from left to right almost unimpeded with the slightest gust.
Tightened the Rubber Bumper Bracket, cleaned it and the tube and it was test flown, and all good.

[STEVE]

STEVE on April 3, 2020 at 8:20 pm #19832

Hi Wes;
I have taken a hard look at the service manual and have called and talked to a Piper mechanic who has been in business for a long time. Your nose gear moves when the rudder pedals are pressed.
The only things we could come up revolve around the engine installation. Such as, do any of the engine control cable housings bare on the steering rods?? Is there any looseness in the steering bellcrank which might let the nose gear move without input?
In our experience the installation of a Power Flow exhaust shouldn’t cause anything like you describe.
Since you didn’t have this before, my initial focus would be on the details of the engine installation and all the details that encompass that.
Since your airplane was down for 6 months, have you done a thorough inspection of all the control surfaces,(rudder) and the control cables.
One mechanic said that a flap might be streamlined at cruise but might droop at lower speeds which would cause a large drag penalty on one side of the airplane.
What other work was done on the airplane during the 6 month down period?? Check the work that was done.
Sorry I (we) can’t point at the cause. What you’re describing is very mysterious.
Please let me know what you find.
Best,
Steve

[Wes Yockey]

Wes Yockey on April 3, 2020 at 9:58 am #19829

My mechanic said it does not lock at full extension.

Next we’ll look at the complete assembly cables etc….

Thanks for the input….

[Kristin Winter]

Kristin Winter on April 3, 2020 at 9:55 am #19828

Some airplane lock the nose gear in the fore and aft orientation when the nose strut is at full extension. Are you sure that yours does not do that? I think that if the nose fairing was your problem, you would have had the problem throughout the flight. I would make a close inspection of the control cables, pulleys, and cable tensions as well as the rudder attach points.

[Wes Yockey]

Wes Yockey on April 1, 2020 at 7:13 pm #19824

The Cherokee has been down for 6 months getting an engine overhaul. We also added a Powerflow Exhaust. So Finally got engine installed, ran the engine and then it’s time to do the 2.5 hour Lycoming flight engine run.
I did a very thorough preflight and all is good. Start the engine and taxi, do the run up and off we go. Up to 6,000′ and 2.5 hours all is great. Time to land and check everything out.
Descend to the airport and set up in the downwind at 80kts and all of a sudden the airplane is so out of coordination it’s scary. I look at the ball and its left so I step on the ball and the ball flops to the right and then step on it and it’s left. I could not keep the plane coordinated no matter what. Fortunately I get the Cherokee on the runway and it taxi’s fine to the hangar. It was a bit of a handful to say the least to get it on the ground.
So what would cause this uncoordinated flight? Prior to the Engine overhaul all was fine with the plane. Could the new Powerflow Exhaust Pipe be creating turbulence causing the nose pant to move at lower speed? (At higher speed the Pant was not moving, I would guess the higher speed helped in this instance) What keeps the nose pant centered in flight? (steering dampener?? the fin on the back of the Pant??) The nose wheel and rudder move together correctly on the ground. It was only happening at slow speed as I was cruising at 105kts for 2.5 hours and all coordinated.
Any ideas on what the issue is????