Keith Miller - Construction Photos

Here is a brief resume for the webpages The plane was being flown by the test pilot ( like all the other flights ) and all 20 landings were normal and made on the main gear ( i observed 9 of them and other members of my aeroclub saw the others). Two landings were with a 7 knot crosswind at 50 degrees from the right. Once the landing was made the plane did have a tendency to thump down of the nose after the speed was reduced , which was difficult to control or hold off.

I had the 2nd version of the nose gear with the spring and I had strengthened the sides with 4130 steel as per the recommended modification , over the entire length.  The nose gear failed starting at a weld between the streamline tube and the vertical attachment for the swivelling wheel , close examination of the weld has revealed that the weld penetration was very poor at the bottom rear of the angled streamline tube attachment. fracture polishing marks are evident in this area.(See attached file: Dscf0955.jpg)

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