AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2017 - 96

P&E

NEVER AGAIN

Hatchet job
A Goose with a stuck gear
BY STEVE HEWITT

96 | AOPA PILOT February 2017

Juneau was about a half-hour away, so I
had about 25 minutes to figure out what to do.
One option was to leave the right gear up and
land on the runway on the keel of the flying
boat. Or I could land on the tidal flats on which
the runway was built. The sand would be easier on the hull than the asphalt, but I wasn't
sure there was a long enough of a smooth
stretch. A water landing was out of the question. Perhaps I could free the stuck gear and
make a normal landing on the runway.
I twisted around to look at the gear through
the left sight glass. The gear shaft was in two
pieces instead of one. A few inches from a
round coupling flange was the break. It must
have started as a crack and kind of spiraled
around until it failed. It was probably the
crack opening while coming up on the crank
that gave the soft feel. One piece of the shaft
was jammed against the side of the shaftway.

SARAH HANSON

IN THE LATE 1970S, I had an opportunity to use cockpit resource management skills before the FAA made
a big thing about it.
I was flying a 1939 Grumman G-21A Goose on
one of our scheduled flights from Juneau, Alaska, to
Skagway, then to Haines, and back to Juneau. I had
been flying for the air taxi operator for about four years.
I had just taken off from the Skagway airport when I
thought, Darn it. Something's not right as I gave the last
crank on the gear handle.
Raising the gear in a Goose is a multi-step process.
You reach behind your right hip to move the small
gear selector lever up. Drop your hand farther down
to the manual crank handle and select Up on the handle ratchet pin. Crank about three or four turns to get
the gear headed in the right direction, and then put
the handle in the Down position and select neutral,
or free-wheeling, on the ratchet pin. Then, raise the
guard on the gear motor switch; flip the switch up
and wait as the gear comes up; and then release the
guard, returning the switch to Off. Be careful, because
sometimes friction in the system can overcome gravity and spin the gear handle around 10 to 20 times in
those few seconds.
The gear is now up but not quite tucked all the way
in the wheel wells. So again select Up on the ratchet
pin and crank the handle about three revolutions until
it comes to the stop. Verify the gear is up.
The problem was the gear handle didn't come up
nicely to the stop, but sort of eased into it, and you
weren't sure exactly when to stop cranking.
This had been going on for a few flights. I had told
our mechanics, but nothing had been done. In fairness
to the mechanics, they had plenty to do, and a comment
about the gear crank not feeling right wasn't much to
go on.
With mail and freight exchanged and six passengers
aboard at Haines, we took off for Juneau.
About halfway through the gear motor step of
retraction, the motor seemed to speed up more than
normal and not take quite as long. The right gear
knuckle was in view through the glass-fine. Looking
out my side window, I saw the problem: The left gear
was stuck about halfway up. Without much hope I
lowered and raised the gear again. No change.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2017