Powerpak Best Practice

Rob58

Rob58

Moderator
A question for Cruisemaster folks... I know that the popular opinion is to give the powerpak a second push after the gear is down in the landing pattern. My question is upon start-up after the plane has been sitting for a day, a week, or a month, does anyone push the gear lever down just to pressurize the system?
 
I never mess with the gear handle on the ground... ever. I do a decent preflight and if there's nothing there and all 3 are in the green, pushing it down isnt going to make it go down any more :) Pressure lowers the gear but doesn't keep it down. If the linkage isn't over-the-center on the ground but you have a green light.. time to bust out some tools.
I will cycle the flaps at run-up just to assure the pump is pumping.

I've actually seen with my own eyes 3 aircraft having to circle my home field due to failed gear extension.. all High Wing Cessnas. Never heard of a Bellanca gear not going down other than when the knob-twister ignored that screeching sound at flare....

ya, ya, ya.. I know.. most of you guys never get three in the green.. I do only because my tail wheel was installed on the wrong end :)
 
I never touch the gear handle on the ground. It stays in the latch. On doing a GUMPS I cycle the handle down three times before moving over to the latch. I remember reading somewhere that this is written for the -3 I guess it never hurt even with the third wheel in the back. Once in the latch and two green never touch it again. Lynn the crate
 
I have had kids look at my plane and kick the gear lever out of the latch so I check before engine start to make sure it is latched then I don’t mess with the lever. Late on downwind I do a GUMP check and feel for the lever in the latch. If I have 2 green and the lever in the latch I am good to land.
A former owner left the handle out of the latch and it bent the prop on start up.
 
lwford said:
I never touch the gear handle on the ground. It stays in the latch. On doing a GUMPS I cycle the handle down three times before moving over to the latch. I remember reading somewhere that this is written for the -3 I guess it never hurt even with the third wheel in the back. Once in the latch and two green never touch it again. Lynn the crate
Click to expand...

The 260 owner's manual just says to push the gear lever down to lower the gear and verify 3 green. Service Letter #9 required that you push and hold down the gear handle until 3 green, then push down again and hold for 3 seconds. Service letter 9-1 later got rid of the crazy double cycle of the gear, as long as the power pack was adjusted properly.

I cycle the gear lever once and as long as I get three green and the lever pops back to neutral, I don't worry about it. I am paranoid about checking the over-center and gear micro-switches at annual and usually every oil change.
 
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