Paul,
Having suffered an overcentre locking failure, I can agree with your
sentiments. I agree that a taildragger configuration would be a great
improvement, do you have a suitable design/approved mod? I heard that the
PFA were not approving any more of the 'Swiss' modification until feedback
---From the ones that have already been implemented. Do you have any others in
mind?
Regards,
Graeme Smith
On 07/10/2007, Paul McAllister <paul.the.aviator@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> paul.the.aviator@gmail.com>
>
> Hi all,
>
> As some of you may recall I had an incident where my port out rigger
> didn't latch. I did some work on it this weekend and discovered that
> the head of a castellated nut had been catching the side of the W21
> outrigger plate.
>
> If you look at the drawing on the bottom left hand corner on page 9-23
> of the manual you will see that a AN4-11 drilled bolt passes through
> the top of the outrigger leg OR1 attaching it to OR4. The AN4-11 bolt
> is fitted with a AN310 castellated nut.
>
> What happening was that there was enough play where the bolt goes
> through the OR4 latch arm to allow OR1 to twist sideways so that the
> nut catches on the side of the W21 outrigger plate.
>
> What I did was to shorten the AN4-11 drilled bolt by 2mm and use a low
> profile castellated nut, I believe that they are designated AN320 (not
> certain). In addition I fitted another AN960-416L washer in the slot
> of OR1 to take up the slack between it and the OR4 latch.
>
> All seems well now, but I would encourage everyone to take a look on
> the inside of there W21 outrigger plate to check for signs of
> catching.
>
> I intend to fit a micro switch to detect gear down and locked, but I
> am afraid to say the the ultimate solution will be to convert my
> aircraft into a conventional tail dragger. Another instance of the
> outrigger not locking or the main gear over center lock failing is
> more than I would want to contemplate at some remote airstrip.
>
> Regards, Paul
>
>
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