FWIW, you might want to check that there is still clearance between the bolts
holding the landing gear pivot blocks and the bottom of thstainless firewall
portion. Maybe the bolt or the safety wire was catching on the lower flange of
that piece. I would tend to agree in surmising that loosening of the three
bolts between lever and gear bracket would have provided more ability to reach
the detent.
The additional G's may have moved the engine slightly and with the close fit of
the stainless firewall pieces, may have created interference with the gear
actuation.
I don't envy your experience and thanks for the report.
Cleve Lee
A198 Mono XS Jabiru 3300
"david joyce" wrote:
>
> Another item for the 'this could happen to you too file', although this one
fits
> in the 'if you are not lucky' rather than the 'if you are dumb enough' class.
> During a splendid flight over the part snow covered Welsh Mountains yesterday
I
> flew through a patch of fairly severe turbulence, presumaby rotor related to
> the strongish (30kts) upper wind. On downwind to Kemble I found the U/C did
> not
> want to go that last bit down, with the lever stopping stubbonly 1cm from its
> detent. Thumping it , taking a run at it and foul language for the length of
the
> leg were of no avail, so I left the circuit to gain a bit of height and give
it
> some serious stick, (actually pushing the lever down with my left hand while
> thumping it hardest with my right), which I am pleased to say eventually did
the
> trick.
> During building I had seen the discussion surrounding Mod 51, which
> adds a supporting bracket between the U/C lever (LG12) and LG08P to which it
is
> normally attached by 3 fairly closely spaced bolts. The discussion revolved
> around the significant stress on this joint if the plane is trailered on a
dolly
> with the U/C retraced. Having no intention of using that sort of trailer and
in
> the spirit of thinking light during the build I avoided this mod.
> It is clear however that turbulence can produce sufficient strain
on
> those 3 bolts (which incidentally I had retorqued at the fairly recent 50 hr
> check) to open up the joint. The difficulty I had in doing anything about it
is
> a fair indication that those bolts were not loose, but simply not up to
carrying
> the mass of the U/C through that sort of turbulence, which recorded 2.5g on my
g
> meter.
> In the light of this I would thoroughly reccommend that everyone
> includes mod 51 (cost 2 or so) in their build or better still that Europa make
> it standard.
> Happy Landings! David Joyce
> The Europa Club website is at <<a
href="http://mail.cswebmail.com/jump/http://www.europaclub.org.uk>">http://www.europaclub.org.uk>;
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