Having recently had a few problems with getting one of my outriggers to
lock down properly I made some adjustments regreased and reassembled them
only to find the other outrigger decided not to lock down for landing .
This landing was a touch and go anyway but Pete Jeffers (test pilot)
noticed it very quickly and kept the wing up whilst the power was applied
to get airborne again. On subsequent gear down selection the gear went down
at low speed and was heard to clunk down which was very reassuring.
Typically enough, although I have gear warning lights on my aircraft, this
particular leg was giving indication problems and was in the process of
getting readjusted when the incident happened. However in the future when
it has been proven serviceable I feel that an indication of gear down is
worthwhile both for the outriggers and as a reminder for the latch on the
main gear.
A learning point for other monowheel users - I found the reason for my
problems was the setting of the castellation nut for the pivot of the
outrigger leg. As this part of the outrigger system can be put under a lot
of stress I tightened this nut so that the leg moved without being sloppy.
However it created a small amount of friction which when it comes to gear
lowering is similar to having significant airloads. Having backed off the
nut one flat my problems have gone away. The lesson is to set this nut
slightly loose rather than tight. In my case the outriggers only clunk down
on gear retraction tests when the nut is too tight so this might be a help
when it comes to setting up the mechanism.
Nigel Charles
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