HD Gear Fairings

[51598Rob]

Unless you just like the look of covered legs, don't bother covering for less drag. I saw no speed difference with legs covered. Big difference btwn 8.5's and 31's! Not going to change those though!

[pilot]

I like uncovered legs.

[captnkirk]

Long ones ?

[51598Rob]

Hmmm....no comment.

[gbarrier]

Fine with the appearance except for the top and bottom attach tabs and the somewhat unfinished looking top channel. Need to figure out how to dress that up a bit.

[erik van veenen]

[quote="Sam Rutherford"]I'm afraid I'm with JMTGT, my experiences with Erik Van Veenan have been considerably less than positive.

Fly safe, Sam.[/quote]
Sam, If you fly for a couple of years out of annual all over Africa, and I refuse to fudge the records to "correct" it, yes you might find that less than positive.
I was protecting my tickets, not your ars.

[FARMAULE]

Eric where do you stand on your gear upgrade. Is it close to being available

[Maule988ms]

Or the price on the vg's?

[erik van veenen]

[quote="FARMAULE"]Eric where do you stand on your gear upgrade. Is it close to being available[/quote]
All the Tooling is at a PMA approved shop in Minnesota ( I brought it there in June )
The Entire gear project will have to be split in into 2 seperate parts.
When Renton Coil & Spring did a finite analysis of for the Oleo Spring ( both Ti., and Steel ) it turned out that the OEM Maule Oleo Spring was at the edge of its stress factor and that even the Titanium Spring would be border line for the same dimension Spring.
The actual Gear Leg will remain the same. I am struggling with some acceptable engineering drawings for the Gear Legs to be submitted via my DER. Again this is delaying the process .
The Oleo Strut as I had designed it ( but without the Spring ) could be used , as is, since it still has the improved Cylinder with collar and Lower section . The buyers original OEM Oleo could be used, as this would remove my liability.
The Cessna type Steel Axles ( straight copy, made in WA State. ) have been completed and ready to enter the market, even seperately from the rest.
My new DER is much more active in the whole process than the prior ( removed ) one , and I expect some real results by the end of the year.
Please dont take this as a promise, as I have never worked on any project as drawn out as this STC project before.
The Maule 3 blade and 81" & 86" MaCauley Prop STCs I did before were a breeze compared to this.
I am committed, both for financial reasons and personal pride.
It alreay has cost me an arm and a leg, delays caused by engineering set backs and having moved from the Western part of the country ( I am no longer in Chehalis ) to the Eastern half of the US, and than to Germany with Tooliing and all ) Production in Europe by Gomolzig would have been prohibitive and I shipped it all back to the US. All tooling is now in Minneapolis by a reputable shop that has FAA PMA approval for other aviation related products. The whole project is getting closer to completion, but now the Spring issue is forcing me to split it up.
To shorten this story; The Gear Leg is ready for approval imminently. The Oleo Strut will only be availabel without a Spring ( the buyer will have to re-use their original OEM Spring, like ABW does with their extended HD Gear )
A new version of the Oleo Strut that will be interchangeable with the original one, with lenghtened stroke and slightly increased diameter for the Spring to pass the finite analysis , has to be re-drawn , re-tooled, before it could even be considered . I cannot even project a time at this moment as it is pretty darn expensive, and my additional Maule STC projects also are drawing a lot of my recources.
Sorry for this "luke warm" response, but I do strive for transparancy, and am available any time to answer further questions.

[erik van veenen]

[quote="Maule988ms"]Or the price on the vg's?[/quote]

The price for any Maule VG Assembly , Micro Aerodynamics VGs ( FAA STC no. SA00170SE ) is: 611.- $ Plus Postage within the USA.

Compared to List: 695.- , Aircraft Spruce : 695.- + shipping.

Shipped from the US

[Sam Rutherford]

Given that Erik chose to wait a year before claiming that I'd flown out of annual, I missed it until now.

So, to correct this:

1. I never flew out of annual, though I did have the aircraft AOG for the best part of a year until he admitted that his A&P certificate had expired which was why he couldn't complete my annual. Thank you for that.

2. I had the annual completed by another engineer, who not only did the work and corrected Erik's shoddy work (can show the emails where he describes everything he needed to redo) - but was also qualified and legal to actually do the work!

There's another thread about Erik somewhere on this forum which will help give some more of his background...

Sorry to bring this back up!

Safe flights, Sam.

[51598Rob]

Maybe the gear legs would be a good place to play with Oratex?