Ratdog Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 This is the old Right Aircraft Gear motor actuator in my Long eze. The manual crank is sheared off as you can see in the photos (someone tried to raise the nose with the crank i guess) I need to find a replacement gear that has the actuator shaft on it or somehow fix it . i know there is a new company making a gear mechanism for 3000$ but i dont want to spend that much money. Since this airplane never flew this is basically a new unit just needs to fix the manual crank issue. Im sure a good machinist could fix this. Anyone have any ideas. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kent Ashton Posted October 2, 2023 Share Posted October 2, 2023 The motor is a Thomson electrak PPA-DC motor. You might get a part from a Thomson dealer. Frankly, I don’t think you would ever need the manual extension if you have any power to the unit. A straight wire off the battery through a resettable circuit breaker. With no power at all, just land with it up. Quote -KentCozy IV N13AM-750 hrs, Long-EZ-85 hrs and sold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratdog Posted October 2, 2023 Author Share Posted October 2, 2023 (edited) what happens to a Long-Ez if you land gear up ? Edited October 2, 2023 by Ratdog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kent Ashton Posted October 2, 2023 Share Posted October 2, 2023 12 hours ago, Ratdog said: what happens to a Long-Ez if you land gear up ? The landing run will be very short. 🙂 Depending on what is built into the nose, like an aluminum or phenolic plate, the damage could be light, ranging from just abraiding the plate to grinding off a 12" patch of the fuselage. A story: One day, preparing to land with my Dad in my former Cozy III (which is a heavy front-seat load compared to an EZ), we arrived at a strange airport between mountains, wind was blowing like heck. On downwind, I "lowered" the manual nose gear. On base at idle the gear warning horn came on. I had experienced problems with that warning system since it was also a canopy warning and sometimes activated if a microswitch was bent. Well, I heard the warning but I knew the canopy was locked and I knew I had just lowered the landing gear so I figured it was that pesky switch. However, surprise!, the nose gear was up! The grinding is unforgettable but it doesn't last long. I was able to extend the manual nose gear and taxi it off the runway. A friendly DAR/boatbulder had some materials in his hangar so I got a patch on it and flew home the next day. What happened was that a tower controller at the last airport had asked about the Cozy as I was taking off. We had a conversation and I forgot to retract the nosegear. It had a very thin strut so the extra drag was not noticeable and I was preoccupied with the weather enroute. Since then I use a very loud warning horn, green gear-down LEDs in front of me and my pax, and a viewing hole so I can see the nosewheel. I usually glance to see that the electric nose gear is beginning to extend. I don't have any manual backup for the electric gear but I have wired it as I suggested. Quote -KentCozy IV N13AM-750 hrs, Long-EZ-85 hrs and sold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratdog Posted October 3, 2023 Author Share Posted October 3, 2023 Thanks Kent Another great thing about these designs you can land gear up with minimal damage. I dont say I will never make that mistake in aviation . All it takes is the right chain of events to make an accident . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midengineracer Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 I'll chime in since I just went through this. Minimal damage to the airplane, it was built with a steel plate under the nose bumper. I also left the gear selected down, in case it decided to extend before touchdown. It didn't, but it did start extending after impacting the runway and this led to more damage to be repaired (on the strut). If it happens again, I will leave the gear selected up once I commit to landing. A lot of pain because an inexperienced gentleman at the FSDO insisted on inspecting my aircraft due to the incident (not NTSB 830, internal FAA incident reporting). I presume the tower is who notified the FAA and I've had other people tell me that they would have just filled out the form and never called me. It added MANY months to my repair process. I mostly like the way the emergency extension system is wired in my plane (per Wright instructions) but I am contemplating a completely separate switch that will be mounted on the instrument panel. I just haven't decided if it will actually benefit me, now that I have a completely sealed switch mounted for the emergency extension. I would just put a plug in the cover you have to keep it clean in there and move on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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