250 nose wheel stc

by **6-up** » Wed May 28, 2008 12:33 am

For those of you who may know Merllyn Fulmer, we bought his 250 from Arizona. Fantastic guy ,great airplane. Wanting to install small nose tire. Dale I know you mentioned the STC is for twins only, prior to purchasing llyn's 250 I saw many, many 250's, 260's with the 6.06 tire . Anybody have STC's for this? It may add a bit more resistance in nose gear cavity because of smaller surface area , but reducing angle of attack and " slightly pushing nose down prior to V1 speed" not to mention ramp appeal, may be worth it.

by **Zach Grant L1011jock** » Wed May 28, 2008 2:26 am

6-up (sorry I don't know your name),
The same STC is for both the PA-24 as well as the PA-30. It is the Harlan and Associates STC. It is not recommended for the singles for many reasons such as prop ground clearance and loss of performance. If you feel the ramp appeal outweighs those issues, then order the STC and install a 15x6.00-6 tire and tube and rock on. It's your airplane, do what you want. At least this is one of those that can be changed back to original in about 15 minutes if you don't like it!
-Zach

by **6-up** » Wed May 28, 2008 2:42 am

Hey Zach, thanks for reply, we have a Mccauley 3 blade so ground clearance should be fine. Performance lost, what should we expect-2-3 knots?And yes if it's not what were expecting its a simple change back to original.Thanks for info
Steve

by **Zach Grant L1011jock** » Wed May 28, 2008 2:50 am

Steve,
Yes, some have reported as much as 5 kts lost. This can be mitigated somewhat by modifying the cowl (closing the side holes) and adding the Lopresti slipper aft of the nose gear bay. I am unfamiliar with the mod status on your airplane so that could be a consideration to mitigate the loss. The 3 bld bought you an inch of clearance, and that is what you will give up with the small tire.
-Zach

by **6-up** » Wed May 28, 2008 2:58 am

No slipper or speed mods as of yet. 5 knots... we may be changing back!
Thank-you

Steve

by **Chuck Lee** » Thu May 29, 2008 11:23 pm

by **6-up** » Fri May 30, 2008 1:17 am

by **Frank Brunot** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:49 pm

Can someone explain to me why there is a performance loss when a smaller nose wheel is used on a PA-24-180? Since the wheel is enclosed during flight, where does the extra drag come from?

by **9089P** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:35 pm

Hi Frank,

About 6 mo ago there was a discussion of that subject either here or +delphi+. You may be able to find it with a search.

The gist of the discussion, as I recall, was that more air is allowed to pass thru the cowling and exit thru the nosegear compartment since the tire is smaller. Recall that the geardoor does not actually cover the tire. The greater air volume apparently creates more drag.

Hope this helps, Don

by **Frank Brunot** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:43 pm

Thanks, Don. I searched out the postings you referred to, and yep, now it makes sense. Since it appears that the mod is really meant for a twin, I think I'll just forget about it, and move on to other projects.