tonyslongez

witch Dr. Chairboy Thanks for the support. I will have the final pieces back from the waterjet cutter this week, once fully assembled I will post actuall pictures of the install and hopefully a small video clip of the gear in action.

JL Thanks alot buddy looks great. That nose is perfect. (At least for me anyway) Thanks Tony

New wheel fork.

Marc thanks for your reply The needlle bearings I was referring to, where for the area between the top of the fork and the strut not the wheel. Sorry for the confusion. Marc, not sure why it matters what style of casting is holding the nose gear? How does it know what is holding the nose gear (what part of the nose gear are you referring to)? I thought that if I kept the rake back slightly mimmicking the stock strut I could keep it stable by putting the wheel in some kind of trail but if I'm wrong I'll move it forward a bit no problem. I agree there is no dampning in the Wilhemson lift, but there is a spring and I believe I have a solution for the damping issue. The rod is actually .500 thick but could be as much as .750 4130 tube. I can add a shimmy damper at the wheel fork. No problem I'll draw it in tonight. Yes I believe that I have that ability in Rhino and I might be able to in CAD jsut haven't taken the time to find out where it is in the program haven't needed to until now. Well someone mentioned not wanting to have to take their hands off of the throttle or stick to steer so I just used the gas strut idea. I can still use the steering tiller, it's a simple system to incorporate. 7) What will happen if you partially extend the gear 1/2 way (to move the plane around with no weight in it on the ground), the wheel goes off to one side, and then you attempt to fully extend the gear without straightening the wheel? Will the engagement mechanism engage with a 90 degree wheel angle? Can you rotate the wheel 90 degrees sideways when the engagement mechanism isn't engaged to facilitate ground movement? That's a good one Marc. O.k, 1/2 way the wheel goes off to one side, YES once the steering fork has cleared NG30 you will be able to move the wheel. The steering fork will only goes as far as the stops I'll try to demonstrate that in a drawing for you, it's hard to explain what I mean without a pic (I'm at work) but yes I do believe you will be able to that with no problem but it won't be 90deg obviously because it isn't castering or at least this design isn't. I can always go back to the spring steering which will do just what you are asking. Yes, but like I said as well, I can get more throw with different bellcrank ratios O.k. well lets take care of that with the shimmy damper Well there is no doubt more to consider in the overal design of the NG-30 if I stay with this and not use the other design with more of a steerable caster. I have no doubt there will be more fine tunning to make it more user friendly but I have demonstrated that it is in fact possible the main thing in my design was to eliminate the steering scissors normally associated with SNG's. I also have another design for damping that is intersting I'll post it tonight and I would appreciate more feedback on that as well Marc. Tony

Here is the complete nose gear assembly. I could use needle bearings down by the fork but dirt and grime will be an issue. I'll stick with the standard brass or bronze bushings. That's it.!!!!!!!! The whole assembly will be raked back a few degrees (A little math there) so that most of the load will go into the whilhemson lift, it has a spring built into it that will provide considerable dampning. I'm not sure what the weight is going to be but I'm hoping to be lighter than the stock nosegear assembly, at the worst it MAY be a pound or two heavier Any questions???? No Yes Maybe

oops getting tired its 3:30am time to go to bed here are the pics

Here is the trunion with needle bearings. I will still have to press in a bronze bushing in the center of the trunion for the steering rod This setup will require a little more machining as I'll have to countersink the steal bearing washer but it may add some longevity. Tony

Here is the final for the nosegear trunion the bearing on top of the trunion is a bronze bearing or you can use needle bearings. The bottom view you can see the other bronze bushing that is pressed into the top of the trunion this bearing will support the top of our steering rod The fork is moved to the side for clarity Also the trunion has the Jack whilhemson preloaded bearings fitted into it so keep those if you do this mod

here are the drawings that where supposed to go with my last post Tony

Well this is it the final design for steering. This design allows 43 deg of steering. (could be more if I make the bell crank bigger). Sorry for the rendering some times Rhino doesn't always agree with Autocad, I actually have the whole fuselage built in CAD. What you are looking at is as simple as it gets. First, notice about three quarters of the way up the strut tube is a small bracket this is where your retract mechanism attaches (Jack Whilhemson) it is in the stock position (that has not changed). If you are going to use this setup with a stock NG30 as far as I can tell you will need to modify it to look like this one at least around the nose gear trunion area. The NG30 you see in the rendering, is the one I'm using, which is in fact the same one that I have posted on the EZ.org site minus the lightning cut out in the front. O.K. next shift your attention to the nose gear steering fork(gold in color) this rotates side to side, steering your wheel down below. The shaft protruding from the center of the fork is for another aspect of dampning not discussed here, this will be the next set of drawings. (I left it there for clarity) the shaft coming out of the center of the steering fork rotates inside the strut tube which for me will be 2.5in carbon fiber tube with a .750 hole down the center this hole will contain the bushings for the steering rod. The bellcrank (red) is pretty straight forward it is attached to NG30 with a small alluminum plate not shown in the drawing for reasons stated earlier. At the end of the bellcrank (looking towards the nose) there is a single shaft that protrudes down into the steering fork, at the end of this shaft is a normal sealed bearing this bearing transfers the input to the fork (pretty straight forward). Now when we retract our nose gear no matter what the input is, the fork is going to move away from the bellcrank bearing, once the steering fork is clear of the bearing the fork will continue down into the NG30 strut. Now if the last input into the fork is right or left. In other words, if the fork is not centered as it is going into the strut well, the outer edges will contact the side of NG30 and right itself straight before the wheel enters the wheel well. I plan on using a small piece of delrin on the side of NG30 only where the fork arc travels into the strut well not a real big piece just enough so it doesn't rub the glass as it's going in, or coming out. Simple as pie right? the gas strut tubes are of the hatch back type relatively inexspensive I have two that are 15lbs not sure what I need just yet, as I get the parts back form the waterjet cutter I'll have a better idea as I start assembly. So basically the gas strut tubes attach to your rudder pedals if you push on both struts at the same time you will put equal preasure on the bellcrank which in turn will keep your nose straight and allow you to break simply let off a little preasure on either side and now you are steering and differential breaking just like our (POS) Cessna. In this configuration however you won't be able to just differential break at some point you will be steering the wheel at all times during gorund operation. One other thing I forgot to mention. No matter what rudder input is given during the exstention period the steering fork is cut in such a way that as it is engaging the bearing it will automatically translate the input into the wheel. see you next time on this old plane Tony

Bob The open Ez project is more of a work donated program that more or less is a free long ez that I think is closer to the original plans. When John M. and I first started talking about it the decission was made to have an open forum Ez and the TZ long Ez. the mods on my airplane are in fact the longer nose, the front seat bulkhead is 4"in wider and the backseat bulkhead is 2"in wider. I also have retracts on my airplane and a steerable nose gear that I'm finishing up on. You can check out my project at www.myairplane.com go to construction log and click on tonyslongez. I have to upload more pictures this week but you'll get the general idea. Tony

Yeah I'll have to figure this out for the PDF guys. It may take me an hour or so to mess with it. How are you doing with Rhino? Tony

Jon Matcho What plot setting did you have on the open EZ pdfs? I have it as 1:1 but I'm not sure what paper size to save it to. Tony

John O.k I'll do that

Tom No problem, shoot me an e-mail and I'll send them right over. Glad you liked the open EZ drawings but I can't take credit for that Thank John Matcho he was the master mind behind all of that. my e-mail Tonyslongez@cox.net Tony

Tom You can convert them to a PDF if you want to. All of the dimensions are there. It's very easy to transfer the dimensions right to the foam. I deliberately set them up that way so we didn't have to build them on top of the plans. You can simply transfer the dimensions. All the cuts are pretty much straight cuts. NG30 is just extended slightly to support the top foam. The battery box dimensions are the same as the plans, so you can use those dimensions off of your originals. I have those drawings in PDF if you need them. If you need any other dimensions let me know and I'll add them to the drawings. Tony

Thank God! Ego and gray hair aren't on that list.

Dave Are you going to Oshkosh this year?

They are one and the same my friend. I drew those and gave them to the Ez.org guys first before I discovered this site. So I'll post them in the PDF format and you can just build right from those dimensions or put in your own to customize it a bit. Those drawings are good jumping off spot. Tony

The idea behind these drawings that I will be posting are for the most common of modifications, one being the longer nose. I have all dimensions for the new ng30 that will be needed to make a long nosed canard. All modifications that will be posted here are ones that I have completed on my aircraft. These drawings are for education purposes only. I will not be responsiible for there use. I encourage everyone to do their own research on the modification of their own aircraft. That being said enjoy the drawings. I will post drawings later this evening. Tony

Yes sir we are Tony

Jon At some point you /we are going to have to decide on the format for printing and what is to be printed. When I made some of those cad drawings initialy, what I was hoping to accomplish was just contrast for the most part. Where the templates were, and where they are now. As far as modification is concerned, I think we can all agree that a Long nosed Long ez looks better than the original nose. This would be supported by the so many requests on how to do it and the already retrofitted Longs. With that, lets just use the design for the new bulkheads for the long nose and call it the canard zone Ez or whatever?? this way there is no question as to its origination of design all other techniques will remain the same. lets just stick with the most common modifications 1) longer nose 2) wider fuse 3) slightly longer fuse for the big motor guys. 4) retracts.? 1,2,3, I've done to my airplane and am now working on #4 but, 4 can be an option left to someone else it's really not in the spirit of the plans set as I see it. So maybe on the next post put your foot down! decide on a format dxf or pdf, modifiable not modifiable, you of course will have both as it is very easy to turn a dxf into a pdf so maybe upon request you can hand out the dxf files if someone wants to play around with the drawings otherwise just have them in PDF and lets get on with drawing. Your thoughts? Tony

Pretty good I don't know if you have seen the drawings, they are the current post for the nose gear question in the main forum area. I finished the final drawing. They are a little different than the drawings I have posted. I'll start machining it this week and start taking pictures of the actual foot itself. Can't wait to test it. Tony

Dave your alive:)

Jon Looks good to me. Certainly a good enough drawing to build from. With the tolerances set within an 1/16in you won't be able to tell the difference between this "Canard zone LongEZ" and a Rutan one. As far as I'm concerned Burt built first and measured second anyway. That would explain the random 32nd measurements to me anyway, when a few more thousandths and your at 15/16 alot easier to see on a ruler, but we have already kicked that horse to death. keep up the great work. Tony