Nose gear parts needed!!!

[brmitchell04]

Hello everyone, I recently purchased a long ez.  I had the unfortunate pleasure of landing with the nose gear partially deployed,  I presume the gear was stripped (which I didnt notice in the pre buy since I didnt take apart the nose gear) long story short, I am trying to find another mechanical nose gear system.  Fortunately on the landing I managed to only skid about 20 feet, and there is a 1in thick aluminum block for the skid, so there was no damage whatsoever.  (flying/landing gliders while balancing on the single main gear and keeping the nose off the skid paid off...).

 Does anyone have a spare nose wheel mechanism?  Or can anyone recommend a new mechanical gear system?  I would like to stay away from the electric systems because of the added weight/complexity. 

It is raining now (I am stuck in a hotel) but I plan on taking the gear apart tomorrow and see what could be wrong.  Thanks

Ben
575 496 5147

[Bill James]

If you have the Brock mechanism, the gear is not metal and usually strips on one side. If so, you can simply turn the gear to the opposite side.  "Simply" is a relative term 

[saybeengineering]

Its a good time to upgrade to a electric nose gear unit. They are NOT complex at all. If weight is your concern, you can balance it out with smaller battery.

http://www.eznoselift.com/. You wont regret it.....

Afif Saybe
LONG EZ HR-ATQ

[srothert]

Ben,
Where are you stuck???   Airport/City/State??

Steve Rothert

[flyingwaldo]

There are lots of folks willing to help.   Most don't follow this forum.  Where are you stuck?

[mfliin]

Sent you a text.  Hopefully you were able to get her going today....Let us know

Mike

[brmitchell04]

Thanks for the response. I am/was stuck in western ilinois. I managed to get the mechanism out yesterday and the gear swapped around in the afternoon.  The FBO here  (SQI) is M&M aviation and they have helped me out quite a bit.  I highly recommend if anyone is flying west of Chicago that they stop in at Whiteside county airport and get some gas they are incredibly hospitable here...  I plan on getting the gear mechanism installed this morning and hopefully by lunch the weather will have cleared enough for me to be on my way.  I called Jack at ezlift and there is a 2-3 week lead time on the electronic gear actuators.  I will definitely be ordering one when I get home. 

I just cannot believe that the original landing gear was made of such terrible metal...

Anyway thanks for your help

Ben

[Bill James]

The gear disc is a designed failure point. There is no pressure/strain on the gear disc itself when fully extended or retracted, but rather the lever load is on one of the substantial mounting bolts. Allows fairly simple repair all things considered

[Joe Person]

What Bill said.

If you were to land with a partially-extended nose gear, you run great risk of getting nosewheel shimmy, which, at touchdown speeds, has high probability of failing the fork assembly, with the resultant departure of the nosewheel from the fork assembly, etc.  Such a freed-up nosewheel can destroy your landing brake, take out your prop, etc.  Seen this twice.

The strippable gear acts as a "structural fusible link" in a sense - keeps overloads or unwanted loads from compromising other components in the overall nose landing gear installation.

[Bill James]

Most of us never think about this non-metal gear, partly because it is well pretty-well designed for it's several purposes. While the gear extend/retract speed limitation is often scoffed at or ignored, doing so may be a reason that the gear sometimes fails for seemingly no apparent reason. Again, with the gear fully extended or retracted, the lever goes over-center against the mounting bolts, with no reliance on the gear itself. Fun to watch it work and go over-center.
Joe, I need more help understanding these airplanes, like for instance why do they sit on the nose like that. Maybe you could straighten me out over hot dogs at Oshkosh?

[Joe Person]

Silly Bill!  The "on-the-nose" parking was developed to create a seat (on the canard) for watching airshows.  Burt was always trying to maximize utility and minimize weight - an elegant solution, having the canard serve a dual purpose.  I also use the canard's weight for keeping just enough forward CG (empty), to keep the nose just barely on the ground when parked - with an empty CG of Station 115.something, my Eze needs all the help there she can get.  If I take the canard off, she is extremely light on the nose when parked.

Sorry to say I won't be able to buy you a hot dog at OSH, but, should you spy a CAP Cadet 2nd. Lt. with the name, "Person" on his uniform (and the un-presented first name of "Ben"), say howdy to him, introduce yourself as someone who has had lunch with his parents, and invite him to wash your airplane when he is off duty...

Cheers!

[easyrider]

One thing most Canardians don't do is to ensure the Long/Vari/Cozy et al is facing Mecca/Mojave when in the parked position.
Easyrider

[cloudman]

I started parking the nose of my Varieze toward Mojave back in 1981 when it first flew out of Corona, California !!
cloudman......w johnson......varieze n725ez

[Bill James]

Ben
With the nose gear experience behind you, two questions:
- Is it absolutely necessary to remove the crank mechanism from in-between the NG-30 Bulkheads to switch the gear around?
- If there are several gear cogs still remaining at the extended area of the gear, can the gear be locked in the down position and flown home?
Oh, one more... any lessons learned that you can pass on 
Thanks-

[brmitchell04]

Thanks everyone for your help.  Sorry for the late reply but work has gotten me pretty busy.  Bill in response to your questions:

1.  "Is it absolutely necessary to remove the crank mechanism from in-between the NG-30 Bulkheads to switch the gear around?"  Yes, it is pretty much impossible to remove the gear without removing the entire assembly.  I guess there could be a way to do it using one of those extreme low profile ratcheting screw drivers, but you still have to remove a fair about of other parts, (spacers, the crank, etc) in order to get at the gear.  Also, if you had the same problem that I had with the teeth coming off, it is probably better to remove the entire assembly and clean everything, just to make sure there are no teeth still floating around the assembly to get jammed anywhere. 

2.  "If there are several gear cogs still remaining at the extended area of the gear, can the gear be locked in the down position and flown home?   Well it all depends.  On mine, yes I could have continued to fly home with the gear extended, there were ample teeth left but I did not feel comfortable doing that, more of a paranoia of flying with known broken parts. But yes on mine, it could have been flown home. 

Hmm lessons learned......well when lowering the nose gear in order to get in the plane, during the entire lowering sequence.... if the wheel ever touches the ground before it is locked raise the gear and lower again, that way you can be 100% sure it is locked down. (Probably not necessary, but whatever it makes me feel better about knowing the wheel is perfectly locked)