Posted for "Jim Scales" <joscales98@hotmail.com>:

 Need some help figuring this one out.
 
Flew a couple of days ago and had an interesting experience on landing.  I
have attached some pictures to help explain what happened.
 
 Landed with slight RH crosswind.  Touch down speed was about 75. Everything
looked fine, right tire touched down, left tire touched down, nose touched
down and plane immediately pulled to left.
 
Figured I must have landed with some brake pressure on left pedal.  Released
left pedal, made no difference, plane pulling hard to left while main tires
begin to skid.
 
 Begin to apply right rudder and brake.  Helped but not enough.  Locked up
right brake, plane began to swerve back to the right.  Main tires started
skidding in other direction and plane started to rotate to the right.
 
 Released right brake as the nose came back toward alignment with center of
runway.  Plane straightened out, I slowed down, turned off, taxied back to
hanger with no further problems (other that that shorts issue we all talk
about).
 
 Conditions at the time of the flight:  +2C on ground, -5C at level I was
flying for about 20 minutes prior to the landing, 7kt wind from 320 while I
was landing on 27.
 
 During preflight I had noticed tires needed some air but not any different
than some other flights.  Cold weather had come in since last flight and tires
lost some pressure.
 
 I also noticed the nose strut was down some.  The normal 3-1/2 spacing was
about 2-1/2.  Again not that unusual.  Have flown with this spacing on a few
occasions with no problem.
 
 When I checked everything after the flight I found the main tires to be at 45
pounds, the nose tire at 25 and the spacing on the strut at about 1-3/4.  No
flat spots on any of the tires.  I was puzzled by the height reduction on the
strut.
 
 The strut was rebuilt in October.  This is the first really cold day I had
flown it since then.
 
 I have some thoughts about what the problem could be/have been. I would
really like to hear what you folks have to say.
 
 I serviced the tires and inflated the strut.  I have flown it twice since
then with four landings and no problems.
 
 Thanks in advance for the help.  I must say that ten years of racing stock
cars on dirt tracks made a big difference in how this turned out.  I was
fortunate.
 
 I am very interested in finding out what happened.
 
 Jim Scales
 
 Note:  The pictures may not load in sequence (proper sequence is 02, 17, 39,
19, 19, 40, 18, 10) so you should look at them from the point of view of the
landing sequence and roll out.  You will see the lines as the nose tire
touches down on the center line then progresses to the left.  You will see the
main tires start to skid then the nose tire appear to straighten out.  The
next will be the RH brake locking and the plane coming back toward the center.