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Monday Evening
3/30/09
Group,
On the take offs during our testing phase, I could always hear the main gear doors "slam shut" - even though I was wearing a noise-canceling headset. The sound reminded me of an old wooden screen door slamming - it was that loud.
After the test phase, I noticed that the right main gear door flange was beginning to form a hairline crack in a couple of places. I asked several people if they had ever had this problem and the consensus was that the "slamming" was nothing unusual. I tried adjusting the hydraulic pressure, using a weaker spring on the back of the gear door and even adding the second spring on the gear doors. Nothing corrected the problem and the "slamming" continued. I thought about changing the location of the "reducer fittings" on the main gear cylinders (from the rear to the front), but decided against that - not knowing what effect that would have on the emergency hand pump.
During all of the test cycling of the gear, it appeared that the cylinder, when it was almost at the end of its stroke, that there was no resistance to the pull that the gear door springs were exerting - resulting in the "slamming".
Bob Pastusek suggested that I look at a "snubber" to help cushion the last inch of travel of the gear leg. Net result - it worked!! I ordered the snubbers from McMaster Carr and received them in two days (from NJ). The mounting blocks that are available with the snubbers have a 2-1/2" hole spacing and that happens to be the exact hole spacing of our nylon "stop blocks" that our gear rests against when retracted.
Long story short - problem solved. Now we can move on to the other "opportunities" that we have to work on. <grin> I have enclosed some photos of our installation so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about. If anyone needs the "snubber" information, just let me know.
Regards,
Ed Smith
Chesapeake, VA
N9JE - flying with easy-closing gear doors!
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