mobilepolice
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- Jun 16, 2013
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Sometimes when my Piper Seneca II sits for a week or so without being flown, I can switch the master on and I instantly get a gear unsafe horn, and hear the pump run. It happens for half a second, at most, and it scares the **** out of me every time because it's a pretty loud buzzer and not something you expect to hear after turning the master on. It probably spooks me more that it's pretty random.
I was servicing all of my tires today with air due to the cold weather changing the pressure within and I looked over the gear mechanisms and everything seemed to be in order, the down-locks were latched on both mains. I did not check the status of the microswitches on the left side, but the right side had one microswitch depressed, and the other was not depressed.
I could feel a little play in the down-locks, though they were very much latched and I didn't want to muck with anything and have the plane try and fall on me. I successfully predicted that I would get a buzzer when turning the master on, but I don't know "why".
I have a service manual, but haven't been bothered enough to look up all the wiring diagrams and find out what microswitches cut the pump/lights off when the gear selector is set to the down position,
but I do know this:
* My actuators are relatively new on both mains gears. Probably less than 5 years old total. I would say they have between 1200 and 1800 hours on them.
* No trouble with the gear coming up, or going down
* No trouble with the gear staying up in long flight. No buzzer/pump activation in flight.
* Not repeatable, seems to be related more to the airplane sitting.
* There's no pump activating when taxiing around, or other ground activities outside of the immediate master-on.
* The last A&P/IA mechanic that looked my gearing system over noticed some play in the top bushing/bearing for the gear on the left side and suggested I have it all gone through at annual (which is absolutely my intention).
My question(s) are thus:
1) Is this an unusual or uncommon symptom of a bigger issue?
2) Given that I have no other symptoms of gear transit/staying issues, should I have this addressed now? or does it make more sense to deal with it when the entire gear system gets looked over at annual? (in July, 2016) I predict I will do between 50-80 hours flying between now and then.
I keep a running squawk list for the airplane so it will be one of the things that I intend to address.
I wouldn't say I made this post out of an issue of absolute concern, more like boredom, and I wouldn't mind having a second opinion.
The A&P/IA I use for general maintenance work has decent experience with gear systems, but absolutely zero experience with Senecas, so I prefer to go to a certified local shop that I know sees about four or five Senecas a year, which means that asking for advice usually means a "why don't you bring it in and let us look at it", which I don't mind to do, but $$$.
Sorry for writing a book.
I was servicing all of my tires today with air due to the cold weather changing the pressure within and I looked over the gear mechanisms and everything seemed to be in order, the down-locks were latched on both mains. I did not check the status of the microswitches on the left side, but the right side had one microswitch depressed, and the other was not depressed.
I could feel a little play in the down-locks, though they were very much latched and I didn't want to muck with anything and have the plane try and fall on me. I successfully predicted that I would get a buzzer when turning the master on, but I don't know "why".
I have a service manual, but haven't been bothered enough to look up all the wiring diagrams and find out what microswitches cut the pump/lights off when the gear selector is set to the down position,
but I do know this:
* My actuators are relatively new on both mains gears. Probably less than 5 years old total. I would say they have between 1200 and 1800 hours on them.
* No trouble with the gear coming up, or going down
* No trouble with the gear staying up in long flight. No buzzer/pump activation in flight.
* Not repeatable, seems to be related more to the airplane sitting.
* There's no pump activating when taxiing around, or other ground activities outside of the immediate master-on.
* The last A&P/IA mechanic that looked my gearing system over noticed some play in the top bushing/bearing for the gear on the left side and suggested I have it all gone through at annual (which is absolutely my intention).
My question(s) are thus:
1) Is this an unusual or uncommon symptom of a bigger issue?
2) Given that I have no other symptoms of gear transit/staying issues, should I have this addressed now? or does it make more sense to deal with it when the entire gear system gets looked over at annual? (in July, 2016) I predict I will do between 50-80 hours flying between now and then.
I keep a running squawk list for the airplane so it will be one of the things that I intend to address.
I wouldn't say I made this post out of an issue of absolute concern, more like boredom, and I wouldn't mind having a second opinion.
The A&P/IA I use for general maintenance work has decent experience with gear systems, but absolutely zero experience with Senecas, so I prefer to go to a certified local shop that I know sees about four or five Senecas a year, which means that asking for advice usually means a "why don't you bring it in and let us look at it", which I don't mind to do, but $$$.
Sorry for writing a book.
