Need part 9838. Left landing gear collapsed on landing.

kitepilot

kitepilot

New member
Well...
I did a super-soft wheel landing on grass (I *HAVE* witnesses! ;-) ) and the left wing began dropping on the roll out.
I initiated aileron correction until I realized that I had a landing gear problem, added power, and flew away. I then landed the airplane full stall hoping that the geometry of the landing gear would prevent the collapse.

It did...

On inspection we found that one of the pins of part 9838 (Universal link, page 57/58 of the 'Parts Manual...', sketch number 116-69) was missing and the link was (well...) broken.

I secured the gear and moved the undamaged plane out of the runway.

Questions are:
1.- Who has one of those links that I can buy it from or,
2.- how can I repair such U-joint?

Darn...
But it could have been worse, I could be the proud owner of a totaled 14-13.
 
Bravo !

Dunno how you did it.. but that's some piloting !

Saved a cruisair from oblivion.. buy the man a beer .
BTW.. do you own Tom Crosses " flying flag " ?
 
I have never heard of a U joint breaking or coming apart. It is a low stress item. The only way it could stress it is if you land with the gear not completely extended so the fore/aft stress is to the acme screw/U joint instead of the drag/retract tubes. I'd be checking the trunion nut area for cracks at this time.
When jacked up, make sure the drag/retract strut goes overcenter. It is possible that the other side is going overcenter before the effected side. This situation can be resolved, as well.
BTW.....You do know the U joint can be lubricated through a small ball valve in the joint. Look for it. Use a round tipped pressure oiler to do so. When was the last time any of you did that?
Dan
 
blimpy -> BTW.. do you own Tom Crosses " flying flag " ?
Yep...
I fly the flag. :)
It's the first comment that I get in any airport that I land after the customary:
'What in the World is *THAT* that you are flying?' ;-)

Dan:
I am used to have the weirdest things to happen to me, so I don't have a good explanation about how this happened. I've been somehow limited to work on the airplane because I was in a 'community' hangar where a jerk runs a skydiving operation, but now I finally got me a 'T' hangar. I will be starting the upcoming annual as soon as I fly the airplane back from Moontown, I'll print your suggestion and take it to my mechanic.

And finally:
Larry Lowenkron got me the leg.
Gutta luv this group... :)
THANKS!!!
ET

PS: And while in the 'weirdest things' mood, please read:
http://www.kitepilot.com/viking/horror_story.htm
Weird...
 
I am reviewing this tonight... 6 months after kitepilot reported this failure, because I am giving my landing gear
a thorough inspection, and lubrication, and I wanted to know what had failed and why.

I I remember Tom.. the previous owner of that airplane saying that he had real trouble cranking the gear at some point in the cycle... but they could never pin point the trouble.

One of my suggestions at the time was to put the thing up on jacks, disconnect one drive chain at a time, and cycle the gear up an down.. to isolate the problem to one side or the other.

Reading between the lines in Dan C's comments... it seems that it is possible ( when the drive chains are disconnected)
for the two sides to "get out of synch". As Dan C put it : that one gear leg could be locked (drag strut overcentered)
while the other side was not quite locked up.

A few turns of the screw.

Hmm. This is something to look closely at.

If that can bust the U-Joint, I wonder if it might not also bend the jack screw ?
THAT would sure cause the cranking to get real hard at a certain point !


Now... is there a good test for the lock-up during pre-flight ?
There are flat plates where the 2 halves of the drag strut meet in the center.
Shouldn't these be jammed together, and meet up face to face with no space between ?
 
Yikes, that was some fast thinking and nice piloting.

There was a good, and rather extensive, article a few years back in the news letter about rigging the gear that seemed to have touched on some of these things. By Cy Galley I believe.

Lubrication is a Good thing, be sure it's done often and correctly; Thanks Dan.

One of the things I've heard often is that cranking the gear down to a hard stop is NOT a good idea. There is actually a Service letter (bulliten perhaps) that talks about over stressing the retaract leg and causing cracks and failures so that isn't a new problem. In addition to the tab on the left wing and the correctly rigged (LOUD) doorbell next to your left knee counting turns of the hand crank going up and down is a really sure-fire way to know where it is. It also amuses passengers.

I remember reading that when the gear is properly rigged the contact pads on the gear are not tight against each other even when they're over center. When the plane is on jacks the retract legs can be wobbled a little bit and remain over center.

It's not hard to individually adjust the gear legs, removing the bolt from the sprocket on the back of the rear spar allows you to fine tune the rig.

These are things I do as part of each annual/100hour inspection. Fairly simple and it doesn't take long.
 
Ok.. I think it's better for Dan Torrey trained eye to look at this aspect, than for me to try to
guess how it should be. It ain't broke now. So.... :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top