Message-ID: <3694566B.2B948756@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1999 22:38:38 -0800
From: Denis Conkey <dconkey@ix.netcom.com>
To: Lancair <lancair.list@olsusa.com>
Subject: Blown nose tire on LC20
Mime-Version: 1.0

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Just wanted to relate an incident that happened to me recently flying a
Lancair 235 equipped with an IO-320 and MT prop.  I flew from Southern
California to Oregon just prior to Christmas for a couple of days.  This
was during that very cold spell and just after some snow had fallen
throughout the state.  No problems landing on snow packed runways that
had been sanded, however upon returning to Camarillo , CA after a 4-hour
flight from Hillsboro, OR (just outside of Portland) my nose tire blew
on landing.  There was no damage to the aircraft or rim other than the
blown tire.  It appears that upon touchdown that the tire was
under-inflated and the rim cut the tire on the sidewall upon contact
with the asphalt.

I believe the tire may have had less pressure than when I departed
Camarillo originally due to the conditions.  When I took off from
Hillsboro, the outside temp was -6 degrees C and I flew back at 11,500
feet at a temp of -10 degrees C.  After a fairly quick decent I then
landed.  I think that the cold conditions and the fact that less air is
run in the nose tire to minimize shimmy potential that the tire ended up
being under-inflated.  The touchdown was easy, but as the nose settled
to the runway, the aircraft immediately tried to swerve to the right.
It was controllable via rudder and the shaky stop on the runway was
uneventful.  The caution would be to check the tire pressure any time
you have gone from warm to cold conditions and you anticipate minimum
time for the aircraft to thaw prior to landing.

Regards,
Denis Conkey
N235WC