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I also can report an incident that happened several years ago. I went to a
dirt strip in Texas with a Lancair IV builder to inspect his project.  It was
reportedly a improved and smooth runway. It was not the best.
On departure the nose gear did not come up. We flew several miles down the
road, and decided to land in Mobile to assess the problem. The gear extended
normally, and on touchdown the aircraft lurched to the right, but corrected
immediately and all operations from that point on were normal. Several months
later, due to a leak, I sent the strut back to Lancair. Pat put new seals in
it. When reinstalling the strut, I noticed the roll pin had been sheared off.
I had never taken notice of the roll pin hole. Pat said the method of repair
was to heat the threaded portion inside the strut to loosen the lock tight.
Disassemble it, cleanup and reinstalled with fresh lock tite and new roll pin.
Lesson Learned; Had this been a "centering" strut, it would have not allowed  
the nose wheel to swivel to a new position on touchdown, and would have taken
me off the runway or possibly have collapsed the nose entirely.

IMHO, a new improved self centering strut may induce other problems and not
be an advantage after all. Beside being harder to taxi.

Charlie K.
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LML website:   http://www.olsusa.com/Users/Mkaye/maillist.html
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Please send your photos and drawings to marvkaye@olsusa.com.
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