Wheel pant spoiler

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="another canopy stop "><U><IMG SRC="0400b0b0.png" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>   <A HREF="id27.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Overhead break"><U><IMG SRC="0410b0b0.png" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>       <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="11" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="11">   <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Chris Hukills RV8"><U><IMG SRC="0430b0b0.png" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> This is a "spoiler" that I had to glass onto the inboard side of the left wheel pant.</div> <div> While flying in <B><U>very</U></B> close formation, my wingman noticed that my left wheel- pant appeared to be vibrating, at different intensities. I could not feel it in the cockpit, and I had been flying around like that for a couple of hundred hours unaware of the problem.  As we began to troubleshoot the  problem, we naturally assumed that the pant must be out of alignment. After jacking the plane and very carefully checking the alignment, we determined that everything was perfectly strait and well secured. After another flight, this time with an observer and video camera flying about 2 feet under the gear, we determined that the wheel pant was actually "flying" inboard, then springing back outboard at a high frequency, due to the additional lift being created on the inboard  side of the pant, which received more airflow from propwash than the outboard side. This effect was not duplicated on the right pant, because the swirling action of the propwash is such that the air strikes it differently.</div> <div> So after a couple more flights to test spoiler designs, we came up with this fix.</div> <div> Problem solved for me, but I bet there are a lot of planes out there that have a similar situation,unknown to the pilot. I'm sure the oscillations will eventually cause parts to loosen!</div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Chris Hukill's RV-8</B></FONT>    |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Chris Hukills RV8"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> Wheel pant spoiler</div> <div> <IMG SRC="09980e00.jpg" border=0 width="640" height="480" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> </tr></table></body>