landing gear transition on takeoff

I'm referring to the switch on the hydraulic power pack.

Here's a pic from the 1965-1969 parts catalog. The switch I'm referring to is #16.

[rmorris]

First, Herb - wish i had seen your post a couple of days back - I would have easily bought one from owen, or paid to rent yours. I was leery the entire time of them using the hand pump,

In any case, they t-shot (17 hrs of charged labor) and said it was a leaking door actuator, two leaking hoses, and a leak around the hand pump. OK, fix em all I said, but please remember that I have to fly out on Sunday Oct 5 for my yearly trip to NM - small window to go, so need plane ready (said this to them a week and half ago when i made original post).

OK, parts came in yesterday, they 'notified' me the plane was ready by sending the invoice via email around 4 yesterday. I went out to test fly it today at noon. same problem - landed and mechanic said I needed to cycle the gear a few more times, might be an air bublle, so up in the air I go again. cycle a bunch of times, same issue. land, line guy pushes it back into maint hangar, sole mechanic sits in a nother airplane 'buttoning it up' for the next hour and half - despite my pleas to make sure my plane is fixed. Fianlly comes over about 4:20 and looks, then goes in offices to look at schematics, then comes out again. i keep metnioning the switches, per above posts - as I had previous week when I saw the posts. He cleaned off the main up switches, and slightly adjusted the nose up switch and cleaned it off, and told me to go fly it again to see. I did, and then he closed the doors and left while I was in the air 9needless to say the problem still exists). Charlotte Monroe Air Center, Neil is the mechanic and owner Mike Dickery aslo aware of situation, in case you all think they should be rewarded for this stellar customer service attitude.

at this point, the problem still exists, and my daughter is waiting in Atlanta for me to pick her up and fly out to NM for my whopping 5-day vacation. Told the main facility would be closed Monday for Labor Day.

So, they have my check for $200, which is mostly labor, and my problem still exists, and no way to get it fixed and make my trip that I can see.

Good news, tried topping it off again after the 30 or so cycles during 3 test flights, and it is still full - so the leaks are fixed

he did say they cycled it with the hand pump on the jacks and it worked fine in both directions.

At least if it is failing, it is in the up cycle, not down - thatt's the bright spot.

-Robert
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[Roger]

As I mentioned before, just go buy some electric cleaner and spray the switches yourself. Blow them off with air.

I don't know this for a fact but I have always felt that the reason the doors might close on jacks vs in the air, is because in flight when the doors are open they probably create a bit of a vacuum in the area of the gear bays.

This negative pressure could be drawing the gear back out/down and away from the locks util the doors are closed. Of course if the gear doesn't seat well enough to activate the switches, the doors will never close, therein aggravating the problem.

Just a thought on why it may only happen in the air.

[rmorris]

Originally Posted by Roger

As I mentioned before, just go buy some electric cleaner and spray the switches yourself. Blow them off with air.

I don't know this for a fact but I have always felt that the reason the doors might close on jacks vs in the air, is because in flight when the doors are open they probably create a bit of a vacuum in the area of the gear bays.

This negative pressure could be drawing the gear back out/down and away from the locks util the doors are closed. Of course if the gear doesn't seat well enough to activate the switches, the doors will never close, therein aggravating the problem.

Just a thought on why it may only happen in the air.

I had him clean the switches today, don't think he used electrical cleaner but some sort of solvent, then saw him blow them off and check with an ohmeter. said the switches were fine, but I went back and test flew - same symptom.

So, not sure it's not the switches, but don't think so on the door switches (mains and nose). He visually examind the microswitch on the powerpack last week, but not sure he did much else on that one - my money is there, since it seems to match previous posts as a culprit, and one of the few things not touched yet.
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Medical marijuana patients

When you cycle the gear to the up or down position are you getting a gear light indication. If you are getting a light but your handle is not returning to neutral it is the switch on the power pack. If your not getting a gear light indication it's probably a gear switch. When I visually inspected the switch on my hydraulic power pack it looked fine but after I took it off it was clearly cracked. A temporary fix I used was to just spray it with contact cleaner. Gently tapping the power pack with the toe of my boot worked too.

[rmorris]

The gear up light does not show on until the handle returns to the neutral position. It does this when I manually move the handle back to neutral, since it does not kick down on it's own. Gear down light works fine when it locks down in place.

I will buy some electrical contact cleaner tomorrow at auto zone, along with compressed air, and try the clean and dry again and go fly it. Will post results.
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