Message text written by "Roger Anderson"
> I trail my aircraft every time I fly it, and I have noticed recently that
on some occasions when I come to rig the aircraft the undercarriage latch
has jumped up during transit, and is resting on the side of the
undercarriage lever guide. It is not hard to imagine that a few more bumps
could cause an involuntary retraction. I propose to fit an old fashioned
lock spring on the undercarriage lever such that it presses down on the
latch and hopefully prevents it from jumping up. After all the same thing
could happen on rough ground.
Has anybody else experienced the latch jumping up, and if so are there
any other suggestions of how to prevent it happening?
<
My latch is a positive sliding fit so is unlikely to jump up. The downside
is that it doesn't automatically fall into place when the gear is selected
down. Personally I think that the latch should be either positively
checked before landing or (as in my case) microswitches are used to give a
red/green indication as appropriate. There have been a few cases of gear
retraction on landing due to the latch not being in the gate. If the latch
can jump up as a result of trailing then it could also jump up on a bounce
during landing allowing the gear lever out of the gate on the subsequent
touchdown. Making sure that the bend in the lever springs it positively
into the up & down gates is a good extra safety measure.
Nigel Charles
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