Difficulty Retracting Gear - Apr 2006

that feels soft and springy against the landing gear lever and even with
increased force, I cannot move the lever further. Chuck Cheesman guessed
that what might be happening is that somehow one gear leg is overextending.

========================================================

Date:         Fri, 21 Apr 2006 20:53:06 -0400
Reply-To:     Ximango Owners Group <XIMANGO@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
Sender:       Ximango Owners Group <XIMANGO@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
From:         =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ted_Gordon?= <tedjgordon@ATT.NET>
Subject:      Difficulty Retracting Gear
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On about one flight out of fpur or five, I am having trouble retracting m=

y
landing gear. The gear retraction mechanism worksflawlessly on all of the=


other flights. After each flight when I am unable to retract the gear, we=


place the plane on jacks and cycle the gear many times without a problem.=

 I
took the principal mechanic up today in hopes that we would have a
recurrence, but it all worked fine. Now the mechanics don't know where to=


look, and lacking any ideas about how to proceed have returned the glider=

 to me.

Here are the symptoms: when I am on a flight on which the problem will
develop, I hear a loud "bang" from the direction of the landing gear just=

 as
the plane lifts off from the runway. Then a few minutes later, when I try=

 to
retract the gear, I can move the landing gear lever only about 2/3 of the=


way toward the retract position. The lever is stopped by an unseen barrie=

r
that feels soft and springy against the landing gear lever and even with
increased force, I cannot move the lever further. Chuck Cheesman guessed
that what might be happening is that somehow one gear leg is overextendin=

g
when the weight of the plane is removed and then the wheel can't fit into=


the wheel well.

Any ideas?

Best
Ted Gordon
=========================================================================
Date:         Fri, 21 Apr 2006 19:21:46 -0600
Reply-To:     Ximango Owners Group <XIMANGO@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
Sender:       Ximango Owners Group <XIMANGO@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
From:         Jim Durango <jim.durango@JIMTEC.NET>
Subject:      Re: Difficulty Retracting Gear
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My guess would be the same as Chuck's.  I think the bang is from the =
strut dropping to full extension which then won't allow the wheel to fit =
in the well.

Cheers  JIM
  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: Ted Gordon=20
  To: XIMANGO@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM=20
  Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 6:53 PM
  Subject: Difficulty Retracting Gear


  On about one flight out of fpur or five, I am having trouble =
retracting m
  y
  landing gear. The gear retraction mechanism worksflawlessly on all of =
the

  other flights. After each flight when I am unable to retract the gear, =
we

  place the plane on jacks and cycle the gear many times without a =
problem.
   I
  took the principal mechanic up today in hopes that we would have a
  recurrence, but it all worked fine. Now the mechanics don't know where =
to

  look, and lacking any ideas about how to proceed have returned the =
glider
   to me.

  Here are the symptoms: when I am on a flight on which the problem will
  develop, I hear a loud "bang" from the direction of the landing gear =
just
   as
  the plane lifts off from the runway. Then a few minutes later, when I =
try
   to
  retract the gear, I can move the landing gear lever only about 2/3 of =
the

  way toward the retract position. The lever is stopped by an unseen =
barrie
  r
  that feels soft and springy against the landing gear lever and even =
with
  increased force, I cannot move the lever further. Chuck Cheesman =
guessed
  that what might be happening is that somehow one gear leg is =
overextendin
  g
  when the weight of the plane is removed and then the wheel can't fit =
into

  the wheel well.

  Any ideas?

  Best
  Ted Gordon
=========================================================================
Date:         Fri, 21 Apr 2006 21:57:10 EDT
Reply-To:     Ximango Owners Group <XIMANGO@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
Sender:       Ximango Owners Group <XIMANGO@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
From:         Steve  Wells <SAWELLS39@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Difficulty Retracting Gear
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
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Ted

When I had a problem similar to yours, it was determined that one landing
gear strut had developed a slight tweek.  It caused the strut not to extend
fully, stopping the tire from being able to retract fully into the wheel well.  The
part that had the slight tweek was the chrome piston that moves up and down. 
I replaced both struts with the newer version, which I was told was tempered,
where the old struts were not. 

Steve Wells

My apologies for misquoting you.=20

Even with my misinterpretation of what you said, our telephone=20
conversation was very helpful since it started us thinking down a line=20=


that hadn=92t occurred to us before. Whether the gear was not fully exten=

ded=20
or overextended, the problem I=92m having is intermittent and hard to pin=

=20
down so all ideas about possible causes and fixes are welcome and invited=

.=20

I did take my mechanic up, as you suggested, but as is the nature of=20
intermittent problems, everything worked fine.=20