Gear Pins

[Cows Go Moo]

One smart feature I liked a lot about the E145 was the little gear pin keeper behind the captain seat. Made checking on their wherabouts very easy.

 

[DrewBlows]

Comair has a rack behind the FO's seat, the presence of the pins are checked during the preflight (duh!) and the Acceptance Checklist. As far as I know there is only one set per airplane. The only time I have ever had to remove pins is when picking an airplane up from a maintanence base, and I have never put a pin in.

 

[Shrek]

Didn't know it was that technical.............lol.

 

[shamrock]

(also the CRJ2, where crews aren't supposed to be opening the forward nose doors . . . also a MX function.)

Opening the nose doors during preflight is a regular occurance at ASA, and gear pins aren't used at all most of the time. A few years back they tried pinning the nose gear (crew responsibility) whenever the plane was powered down completely because of some incident at another airline but it didn't last long because it caused more problems with pins being left in for takeoff.

 

[greedypilot]

The nose gear pin is installed on the SAAB for pushbacks.

 

[Cardinal]

On our 1900's it's a Mx function with a writeup requried. On the E120 it's a pilot function, and the gearpins are on the acceptance checklist. Go figure.

 

[pilot05]

At CHQ we (flight crew) have to put the pins in at night and we pull them in the morning. This is at every overnight, be it maint or not.

you don't pin the nose gear on pushback. why would you need to pin gear on normal overnight's? Seem's silly. And why risk tko with them installed?

 

[91100 100 set]

you don't pin the nose gear on pushback. why would you need to pin gear on normal overnight's? Seem's silly. And why risk tko with them installed?

It is silly. I've banged my head more than once climbing under the nose gear, and ruined at least one shirt bumping into something dirty. And yes, we (CHQ) have departed at least once with the pins installed. The plane can sit broken at a gate for a few hours without the pins in place before maintenance gets around to even looking at it, but god forbid it sits 6 or 7 hours before the morning flight.

In a former life, gear pins in or out was a logbook entry, and the only time I ever had to touch them was the one time we ferried a plane with the gear down, doors open and pins installed.

 

[Capn Sac]

Hey D now I know. You the man.


Sack

 

[SpoilerFault]

Just a suggestion...if your company doesn't have any clear guidelines on who's responsibility it is then push the issue to get some sort of SOP in place. As a mechanic I ALWAYS take the pins out before the crew gets to the a/c because I figure the pins are generally installed as a maint. function. Plus, I get paid to venture into dirty wheel wells so there's no need for you guys to also. At ASA it depends on who you talk to, some say it's the mech's responsibility to ensure they're removed and some say it is the flight crews. We (maint) SHOULD be making a write up for installed gear pins. That way we're all covered.