David Cutler Question,.....or anyone else for that matter

Great day for flying. Light and variablr winds and just a little stronger for brief periods. The snap situation is pretty much taken care of and I moved the CG forward to about the 4" mark. Got rid of the foam wheels and put 3" dubro rubbers on. It allowed me to remove all but a very small piece of lead.

Flying around today was great, but ran into the floating problem today that everyone talks about.....but with a twist. Comming in for approach everything is fine, until I get down to just above idle. When at the point of just above idle and ready to chop, it balloons! First thing we look at is balance, but it is at the front most portion of the range, and a tiny bit nose heavy if nothing else. I cannot remember this happening on any other flights. So couple of decent landings, and then I had a rough one and had to bend the gear back. Had to take one of the wheels off to get at the spot that needed bending. Anyway, one of the guys and I start talking about the thrust. Mine is set up with right thrust only and no up or down. Remember this is only at low speed. Crank her up and she flys like an arrow.

We talk a little more and decide to mix in a little down elevator to the throttle. Tried a few clicks up high and it was way too much! Landed and adjusted and after a couple more trys, it ends up being 1 click of down elevator at just above idle speed. He flew it around and did some of the best landings the plane has made since flying. The mix is programmed to an extra switch, so in regular flight, it can be turned off, but when ready to land, just flip a switch and the mix is there. We decided to go around one more time and that's when it happened.........remember that wheel I had to take off? At about 250 feet in a shallow turn we see something fall from the plane. At this point I am praying that it's the muffler, but the engine keeps running so I know it was something else.....left wheel. O.K. couple of low passes with the switch and we decide to go for it.......he did a great job, but as soon as the wheel-less side of the gear caught, it sheared the nylon bolts and the plane bellied in. Part of the gear punctured the wing...Already fixed. Both bulkheads that hold the bellypan in place (Edge) sheared.....30 min fix. Cosmetic damage on Cowl underside I'll leave alone since I'm getting another cowl anyway. Two dings in horizontal stab...already fixed. Pretty fortunate considering how it could have turned out, and if I had been at the sticks, I'm sure it would have been worse.

Sorry to be so long winded, but here's the question. What else could be causing this balloonning at such low speed? Everything I have been taught suggests that what is happening is typical tail heavy behavior, but I assure you that it's not. Next comes thrust. Should I try adding a little down thrust? I really don't want to do this because of the potential for it to affect everything else. I guess the mix may have fixed it, but we just didn't have enough time to play around with it to know for sure before the incident. Does anyone else have these low speed ballooning characteristics? I know that people say these planes have a tendency to float. I can deal with a float, but when you know that it should be sinking, and it just rises, it is really freaky because the speed is getting down and a snap is just right around the corner.

Can't fly on Sunday, as I'm going to Vegas for a week. Back in the air hopefully next Sunday, so I have a week to evaluate any suggestions. So please fire away.

Miloh, looking good over there, did you get the maiden in?

John