From:
Date: 1/8/2004 8:39 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 01:30:30 GMT, Ron Wanttaja
wrote:

:On 8 Jan 2004 14:08:50 -0800, (Paul Lee) wrote:
:
:All you EZ/Cozy builders what do you put under the nose to protect
:the fuselage when it is down? Extra thick paint?
:
:I think many install a RNPD (Rickles Nose Padding Device). In the
:non-aviation world, it's called a "hockey puck." :-)

There are three things to remember as you build it. You want it to
chock the airplane, so if the nose is down with the engine running it
doesn't scoot across the pavement with you in chase. Then, you want
it low drag. And, if you land nose gear up, you want it to survive
long enough that you don't come to a stop without grinding off half
your nose. There is no clear, universally accepted answer.

Hocky pucks are common. Another is a teardrop piece of truck tire
tread. Put down about 8 plies of glass, tapering, then a piece of
phenolic sheet, then the rubber. Drill a lot of little holes in the
back of the rubber, and work some epoxy into them, then lap glass up
on the sides to capture it.

Other people use chunks of stainless or aluminum or wood. One I know,
who's done a couple of nose landings, is putting a wheel from a roller
blade just under the bumper so when it dies it will grind down to his
"alternate gear system."


Gotta love them redundant systems.

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired