Search the Community

Hello again folks, Another issue we are facing on our 81 M20J during a very painful annual inspection is an aging gear actuator. Our AME did a closer inspection after hearing a rachetting sound coming from the actuator during the gear swing. Upon closer inspection they found that the jackscrew has play in it, part of the emergency system is damaged and other integral parts are showing wear. There was an instance about 4 years ago that passengers of mine had accidentally dislodged the safety on the emergency gear handle. No one touched the handle itself but when I went to retract the gear on takeoff, the actuator circuit breaker popped ie) the motor wouldn't run because the emergency gear safety was dislodged. Not knowing what had caused this at the time, I returned to land and we had our then AME inspect it. He just reset the system, swung the gear and said we were good to go. Since the circuit breaker popped right away, I am hoping it did it's job to protect the actuator by keeping the motor from running (this appeared to be the case). Is dislodging the safety on the emergency gear handle then selecting gear up, causing the circuit breaker to pop enough to have caused damage to this system or is it likely that 30-some years of operation has just taken it's toll? I believe it's the original unit actuator which would be about 33 yrs old with about 2500 hrs on it. You can't see a whole lot except for some metal filings but I have attached a few photos from this inspection. Thanks again guys! Looking forward to your input. Brenden Calgary, AB