Your Plane is Talking But Are You Listening?

When it comes to troubleshooting your aircraft for any particular mechanical malfunction, you (the pilot) are the best troubleshooting tool your mechanic has. Your plane talks to you all the time but many pilots just don't listen until something fails totally. Many times I will have aircraft owners and pilots bring me their aircraft and tell me that they have a nose wheel shimmy or something similar and I will ask questions to try to isolate the problem. By the way, while many Cessna aircraft do often have this nose wheel shimmy problem it is not correct to say just hold the nose up until your ground speed slows. I actually heard a pilot say for Cessna aircraft this is "Operating a Cessna 101". If you think like that then you must still be in pilot training 101. A nose shimmy is not S. O. P. (standard operating procedure) for any aircraft. While the majority of the time it is caused by a leaking shimmy dampener or a tire that is out of round from sitting in one spot too long, it could be an indication of a more serious problem like worn gear trunnion bushings or bad wheel bearings. If you continue to ignore these symptoms because you think a shimmy is normal then one day you will destroy your aircraft by veering off the runway due to a nose gear failure or possibly a nose gear collapse on landing. Any how your mechanic will depend on you for answers to questions like how long has it been doing it. Did it do it on take off and landing or just on landing. Does it shake while high speed taxiing. Does it stop shaking when you pull back on the yoke. Have you noticed any hydraulic fluid on or near the nose gear. Do you have any flat spots on your nose tire. Have you had any work done to your nose gear in the recent past. Many times the answers I get to these questions are simply, "I don't know I wasn't paying any attention". If you can give me answers to these questions then I can most likely tell you what the problem is, but if you can't then I will have to spend a tremendous amount of time finding out on my own. You may ask why did it cost so much to service a shimmy dampener, well the answer is because if I just service the dampener and it doesn't fix the problem then it will cost you more down time in the long run and you will be mad at me for not fixing it right the first time. The bottom line is, listen to your plane, take notes, be prepared to answer questions and then you will be helping your mechanic help you.