I recently had a gear extension problem in our 1977 Piper Lance. None of the gear extended normally, so I went to a safe altitude & area, slowed, held down the emergency gear extension lever and executed the reccomended maneuvers. No Joy.
I began pumping the lever and after many, many, repetitions the right main came down. Continued pumping brought the left main down and finally the nose gear.
Upon inspection we found the fluid to be remarkably low, though it was presumably full a few days earlier, having just come out of annual. I made 4 prior uneventful landings in 2 days, after annual and before this incident.
On jacks, after adding fluid, the gear swung twice normally. The third try popped the circuit breaker. We replaced the motor & pump assembly and it swings well on jacks now.
Last February, also shortly after annual, the gear auto-extended while in cruise at altitude. We ended up replacing a long bolt in the nose gear, but also found the fluid to be very low.
Why was it necessary to pump the emergency gear lever to get the gear to extend? Just holding it down is supposed to do the trick per the POH.
What do you think is going on with the fluid? There is indication of minor leakage but not too much.
Thanks for any light you can shed on this.
I began pumping the lever and after many, many, repetitions the right main came down. Continued pumping brought the left main down and finally the nose gear.
Upon inspection we found the fluid to be remarkably low, though it was presumably full a few days earlier, having just come out of annual. I made 4 prior uneventful landings in 2 days, after annual and before this incident.
On jacks, after adding fluid, the gear swung twice normally. The third try popped the circuit breaker. We replaced the motor & pump assembly and it swings well on jacks now.
Last February, also shortly after annual, the gear auto-extended while in cruise at altitude. We ended up replacing a long bolt in the nose gear, but also found the fluid to be very low.
Why was it necessary to pump the emergency gear lever to get the gear to extend? Just holding it down is supposed to do the trick per the POH.
What do you think is going on with the fluid? There is indication of minor leakage but not too much.
Thanks for any light you can shed on this.
