Posted for "John Schroeder" <jschroeder@perigee.net>:

 Rick -
 
 I am just finishing an ES and cannot comment on it specifically. Our strut
 leaked from the day we owned it, so we sent it back for a rebuild. I'm
 hoping that this alleviates the potential for the severe shimmy.
 
 But several guys with ES's have had the shimmy. One got a collapsed nose
 gear when the shimmy could not be stopped. Another had almost the same
 violent reaction but manged to get it stopped. There is a lengthy set of
 emails discussing this problem on the website:   Lancair_ES@yahoogroups.com.
When you get joined up, search for "shimmy".
 
 Now that you own the best  :-)), go to this site and join the group. They
 have been an immeasurable help to my podner and me during our building
 process.
 
 The strut problem has not been fully explored in an engineering sense, but
 Lancair is proceeding with a new design and it will be a retrofit for the
 existing one. My understanding is that it will be similar to the one on  the
Columbias. Another measure that is available is to have the strut  re-built by
the factory. If it is an older strut, they install a second  O-ring. That
seems to have alleviated the problem for some of the folks.  The rake angle of
the strut is also a suspect, as is the heat generated by  the exhaust stacks.
It flows down the faired strut, heating the oil to  where the viscosity may
not be sufficient in dampening the onset of a  shimmy.
 
 Hope this helps.
 
 John Schroeder
 Super ES - Engine runs this week. FAA inspection on July 20th