by steen » Thu Jan 10, 2013 11:47 pm
Not to be picky or anything, but it is not a small nose wheel conversion, as the original wheel is used.
Only a smaller diameter tire and tube are mounted on the original wheel.
On my PA-30B the difference is more than it seems it should be. That very small change in wing angle allows the plane to stay firmly grounded
until VMC and a very slight positive rotation puts it in the air.
Another pleasant surprise was that the effort to steer while taxiing is noticeably less.
Note that since the same wheel is used the same prop clearance is maintained in event of a nose tire flat.
My conversion was many years ago and there has been no increase erosion of props due to fod because of the small nose tire.
I fly off paved runways nearly all the time so my exposure fod is limited but I do operate off some pretty ornery winter-time runways
so I consider my no-prop-erosion-problems to be meaningful, considering the long time of operations.
In short, no negatives....only positives on the conversion.
Steen