Brief Description: Irony and confessions to an engineer
In less than an hour I designed, cut, drilled and polished 2 heat shield from .090 2024. No taking chances on a landing gear meltdown. Fun stuff. I then started researching what the masses were saying about Toe In and finding the debates to be very interesting. For one type of aircraft and landing configuration you "could" argue toe in or toe out, but what became obvious to me is that the majority of hardcore high time pilots all could agree that the Mecca of setup is a 0 degree setup. SOOOOOO I swallowed my assuming pride and went back to the gear. I also found that using the newly made heat shields as a flat surface I could get REALLY accurate results by taping a straight 30" stick to them and performing my measurements. I also got very lucky as my cousin Charlie, an engineer, came over to give a helping hand and some advise on setup and measurments. Now here's the funny part; my last log I ended saying that I set 1 degree of toe in on each axle, however after mounting the shields and sticks I found that I was litterally a total of 1 small washer off from a PERFECT .5 degree toe in. I'm counting on that heavy engine and both wings to press that gear out to 0. They are both equally aligned with the aircraft centerline as well. Ok now I'm ready for those new bolts from ACS to show up as I mangled the original ones getting them out :()
