The Shadow’s nose wheel got damaged recently during a landing.
I didn’t realise what had happened at the time. All I knew was that the aircraft headed sharply to the right on landing.
It wasn’t until later that I saw the mangled nosewheel. The video taken by the onboard Sony action cam confirmed what had happened.
Looking at the video, you can see that the wheel was pointing to the right before landing. It did not like it having to instantly line up with the direction of travel. In addition, there was zero suspension movement because the bungee was way too tight. At touch down, the wheel just sledged sideways and everything bent.
A real mess. The trailing arms got bent. The alloy spacers and AN5 bolts were bent as well. The tyre was severely rubbed, as I limped back to the hangar.
Anyway, a new noseleg was required, so I set about manufacturing one from 6061-T6 aluminium.
At the same time, I replaced the heavy rim and tyre with an original-spec unit saving 600g weight.
I even added a mudflap to stop the sheep poo from splatting all over the underside of the fuselage!