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Per requests from various people, I would like to to provide more details re the nose gear collapse on my LIV.  The night before the incident, I had had a hard landing at my home base(Helena, MT).  The incident occured in Tucson, AZ.  The landing in TUS was one of my better in that the aircraft touched down on the mains with no noticeable bump.  As the airplane slowed and the nose lowered, it simply continued down to the runway.  At this point the power was reduced as far as possible and rpm's were probably being generated more by airflow than by power.  As a result there was no damage to the engine nor was there any damage to the aircraft(other than the prop)-not even a scratch on an antenna.  As we raised the nose and pulled the nose gear down, it locked into place.  On inspection we noticed the bent linkage.  At that point, I determined that as soon as I got the airplane home, I would design heavier linkage.  However when the new linkage was recieved from Lancair, we noticed it was heavier.  Measurements revealed it was 35% heavier.

Discussions we had with Lancair revealed there had been problems with bent linkage but this was the first incident of a collapse, ie. the heavier replacement linkage.

Apparently the bent linkage did not allow the gear to come all the way down to the over-center locked position and it simply folded up as the airplane slowed and the nose lowered.

I would like to say that Lancair was extremely cooperative in helping with the problem.  They were very good about getting parts shipped to Tucson for the necessary repairs.

Dale