colgan beech about to nose it in.

[erj-145mech]

I twice had the nose landing gear fail to extend on a Cessna 310 freighter. A defect in the nose gear according to the FAA. Not a lot of damage except for engines and props and some nose work.

How is that possible? The 310 has one electric gear motor with one transmission, and mechanical linkage to the three landing gear. If the nose gear doesn't come down, the mains don't either. If the nose comes down partially, then the main doors will be in transient. If the nose gear linkage physically breaks, then gear will not lock into position (air load) as it has to go over center to lock.

Please enlighten me. I've been working on twin Cessna's since early '75 and am confused.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[cptsesso]

There is a bell crank in the nose section which has an unusual tendancy to break, or so I was told by the FAA inspector. When it does, the nose gear will not extend and lock into place. It just hangs freely in the slipstream. If you pull some positive and negative g's, it will bang in and out of the wheelwell.

The mains are still connected through their own linkage and will extend and retract normally.

I wish I had taken some pictures. It has been probably 5 or so years since I flew cargo in C310's.

 

[erj-145mech]

Thanks, I believe that I know which bellcrank that is. I guess that if it doesn't get greased it could bind and fail.

Dave

 

[jergar999]

I don't know if this is true or not, but I heard about a guy flying a 310 who had both mains down and locked, but the nose gear stayed up. On landing he had all the pax (4 of them I think) get as far back as they could along with all of their belongings and slid it in on the mains and the rear tie down hook.

 

[cptsesso]

I am not sure how true that is. Even with the rear seats installed and the other two pax sitting in the middle row, I don't see how there would be enough rearward weight to keep the nose off of the ground.

 

[jergar999]

I figured it was just airport BS, but I threw it out there anyway.