Gear didnt come down.

[mhoffman]

Hey everyone,

 

Two nights ago i was inbound to KPDX and was on the ILS10 L when my gear didn't come down. After trying the gear switch a few times I ended up going missed and got vectored around while I tried to troubleshoot what was going on. After pulling the breakers and trying a few more times with the gear latch I ended up using the emergency extension and was able to get the gear down and flew the approach back in to KPDX and probably pulled off my best soft field landing i have ever done.

Now the weird part, so I got it to my mechanic in KTTD and he has not been able to reproduce the gear issue. Dropping the gear in multiple configurations he has yet to have it fail once. Has anyone else experienced something like this ? I have a 2007 Acclaim fwiw.

 

Thanks

Mike

[dkkim73]

@mhoffman An intermittent failure of the airspeed safety switch might produce those symptoms. One of the relays is in series with the landing gear circuit (in lieue of a squat switch). If you used the bypass button next to the gear lever, I believe that would have allowed it to go up... did you recall specifically trying that? These do go out from my experience and what I've read. 

Otherwise I would be thinking of something like a loose connector.  But that's very a nonspecific contribution. 

Edited Thursday at 07:31 PM by dkkim73
adding @ ref

[LANCECASPER]

1 hour ago, mhoffman said:

Hey everyone,

 

Two nights ago i was inbound to KPDX and was on the ILS10 L when my gear didn't come down. After trying the gear switch a few times I ended up going missed and got vectored around while I tried to troubleshoot what was going on. After pulling the breakers and trying a few more times with the gear latch I ended up using the emergency extension and was able to get the gear down and flew the approach back in to KPDX and probably pulled off my best soft field landing i have ever done.

Now the weird part, so I got it to my mechanic in KTTD and he has not been able to reproduce the gear issue. Dropping the gear in multiple configurations he has yet to have it fail once. Has anyone else experienced something like this ? I have a 2007 Acclaim fwiw.

 

Thanks

Mike

Good job on keeping a clear head and getting the airplane down safely with the gear extended. 

I always try to think about the simplest, thing that happens most often and it usually has to do with the gear latch. I know you verified it was latched, but I would check and clean the microswitch in there first. With all of the exercises you went through, breaker pulling, etc. it's going to be hard now to figure out exactly what happened.

(I flew back from KFTW to KSAT one night with the gear down 30 years ago because of not knowing about the gear latch. A passenger that I had dropped off must have kicked it on the way out of the airplane.)

[Danb]

Mike I did a few weeks ago actually about 4 times in last couple months but I got it down by putting the gear switch down many times..the MSC.changed the switch works great now..

[M20S Driver]

My Eagle did the exact same thing very intermittently and more on the colder days.  Long story but a few solenoids later, we fix it by replacing the gear down switch.

[dkkim73]

1 hour ago, LANCECASPER said:

I always try to think about the simplest, thing that happens most often and it usually has to do with the gear latch. I know you verified it was latched, but I would check and clean the microswitch in there first. With all of the exercises you went through, breaker pulling, etc. it's going to be hard now to figure out exactly what happened.

(I flew back from KFTW to KSAT one night with the gear down 30 years ago because of not knowing about the gear latch. A passenger that I had dropped off must have kicked it on the way out of the airplane.)

@LANCECASPER do you mean there's a switch that detects if the retention latch on the emergency gear handle is unsecured? Or just that if it's loose the mechanism won't work correctly. I'm looking at my POH and trying to work through your advice and anecdote. Thanks!

[LANCECASPER]

[mention=8122]LANCECASPER[/mention] do you mean there's a switch that detects if the retention latch on the emergency gear handle is unsecured? Or just that if it's loose the mechanism won't work correctly. I'm looking at my POH and trying to work through your advice and anecdote. Thanks!

Yes if the latch is not latched the gear will not go up or come down electrically

[mhoffman]

20 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

Yes if the latch is not latched the gear will not go up or come down electrically

Greg at Advanced in KTTD thought it might be the Gear down switch starting to go bad but due to the fact he couldn't replicate the issue we dont have the definitive answer yet. We are going to get a switch and keep it in stock and keep our eyes on it and just hope it doesn't happen again. I did not know that about the emergency gear latch Ill check that micro switch on latch and give it a clean thanks for the heads up.

 

Mike