Amateur/Home Built/Experimental
Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30; Flight Crew Total 2050; Flight Crew Type 580
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
General Maintenance Action
Human Factors; Aircraft
After completing 2 touch and go landings; I landed and the nose wheel gave me an extremely hard shimmy. After the airplane came to a complete halt I taxied to the hangar without further shimmy and inspected the nose wheel. I found that one of the exhaust pipes had broken about 9' from the tip inside the cowling. The ensuing hot gasses were blowing directly on an H-Bracket in the nose wheel assembly weakening it causing it to partially fail. This partial failure caused the nose wheel not to track properly upon landing causing the extreme shimmy I felt. I contacted Ground Control and advised them of what happened in case the missing piece was still on the runway. Except for the extreme shimmy on landing I did not feel anything different in the airplane handling. I do remember the airplane had a slight shimmy during the previous touch and go landings; but nothing out of the ordinary.
The pilot of a KIS4 experimental aircraft noted a considerable shimmy from the nose landing gear after landing. When he arrived at the hangar and inspected the nose wheel he discovered that a failed exhaust pipe had been directing hot gases onto the nose wheel assembly; causing a partial failure.