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Culver General Discussion / Re: Mechanical landing gear
« on: January 02, 2012, 04:34:53 PM »
Hi Woody,
The device you are referring to is the dashpot. If it's operating properly, it will keep the landing gear from free-falling and banging into the down-stop. The original packing used in the dashpots was notorious for leaking and losing all of the oil. This item is missing from a lot of planes because the owners simply took them off. It's pretty easy to just let the retract wheel slide through your hand to damp the dropping gear.
Even it you have a good dashpot, you must still relieve the pressure on the uplock pawl by raising the gear a little, before moving the lever to let it down. After the gear is down, you may have to move it to the full-down position in order to line up the locking pins with the holes.
When you're assembling the plane you'll probably get plenty of practice with the plane on jacks.
Bill
The device you are referring to is the dashpot. If it's operating properly, it will keep the landing gear from free-falling and banging into the down-stop. The original packing used in the dashpots was notorious for leaking and losing all of the oil. This item is missing from a lot of planes because the owners simply took them off. It's pretty easy to just let the retract wheel slide through your hand to damp the dropping gear.
Even it you have a good dashpot, you must still relieve the pressure on the uplock pawl by raising the gear a little, before moving the lever to let it down. After the gear is down, you may have to move it to the full-down position in order to line up the locking pins with the holes.
When you're assembling the plane you'll probably get plenty of practice with the plane on jacks.
Bill