Landing gear bolt broke

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Landing gear bolt broke

Postby Rofomoto » Fri Mar 03, 2023 9:27 am

Just landed at home airport, as I turned off runway bolt broke and gear spins in mount. Easy fix with only wheel pant damage but going to change all gear bolts at each condition inspection.
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Re: Landing gear bolt broke

Postby GordonTurner » Fri Mar 03, 2023 10:00 am

Bummer. Glad you’re ok. Glad you’re at home. How many landings so far, and all pavement or some mix? Sounds like it was upper bolt?

How’s that Corvair treating you? I’ve watched your videos, thanks for sharing those.

Cheers, Gordon
Waiex 158 New York. N88YX registered.
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Re: Landing gear bolt broke

Postby Bryan Cotton » Fri Mar 03, 2023 1:36 pm

Billy, I'd also be interested to know how many hours and landings you have. I'm at 62 hours and maybe a couple hundred landings. I'll have to check my logbook.
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Waiex 191 N191YX
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Re: Landing gear bolt broke

Postby rbarber » Fri Mar 03, 2023 1:46 pm

I have ~1200 hours, on the original bolts for mine (Stainless) . No slop or issues. FWIW, my landings are not pretty, as I always practice short steep approaches. So I am wondering what may be the cause?

R.
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Re: Landing gear bolt broke

Postby daleandee » Fri Mar 03, 2023 3:38 pm

rbarber wrote:I have ~1200 hours, on the original bolts for mine (Stainless) . No slop or issues. FWIW, my landings are not pretty, as I always practice short steep approaches.


I don't have near your amount of time (~300 hours) and I fly from pavement mostly but have a few grass fields I visit. So far no slop or issues.

I did replace the stainless bolts for cad plated steel per the Sonex bulletin (SNX-SB-006).

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3.0 Corvair, Tailwheel
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Re: Landing gear bolt broke

Postby Bryan Cotton » Fri Mar 03, 2023 3:48 pm

I see no slop yet. I had to teach myself how to fly a Waiex, and then taught my son. I've been pretty pleased with the durability of the airplane.
Bryan Cotton
Poplar Grove, IL C77
Waiex 191 N191YX
Taildragger, Aerovee, acro ailerons
dual sticks with sport trainer controls
Prebuilt spars and machined angle kit
Year 2 flying and approaching 200 hours December 23
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Re: Landing gear bolt broke

Postby Sonex1243 » Fri Mar 03, 2023 9:15 pm

I installed cad plated steel as well per the SB. I have a little wiggle/slop on the lower end where the gear rod fits into the steel axle mount. Have you guys seen this and if so, what did you end up doing? I am thinking of bonding the two together with something to fill the cavity to stiffen it up but also enable removal if needed.
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Re: Landing gear bolt broke

Postby Rofomoto » Fri Mar 03, 2023 9:18 pm

GordonTurner wrote:Bummer. Glad you’re ok. Glad you’re at home. How many landings so far, and all pavement or some mix? Sounds like it was upper bolt?

How’s that Corvair treating you? I’ve watched your videos, thanks for sharing those.

Cheers, Gordon


85 hours. Mostly hard surface.. 200 or so landings. Don’t forget I did 4 months of high speed taxi test. Lol
Corvair is perfect for this plane.
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Re: Landing gear bolt broke

Postby Bryan Cotton » Fri Mar 03, 2023 9:36 pm

Sonex1243 wrote:I installed cad plated steel as well per the SB. I have a little wiggle/slop on the lower end where the gear rod fits into the steel axle mount. Have you guys seen this and if so, what did you end up doing? I am thinking of bonding the two together with something to fill the cavity to stiffen it up but also enable removal if needed.

My axles and both joints on my tailwheel had slop during the build. I used metlweld to bond them.
https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/ ... ckkey=6039

The ti legs in the motor mount sockets were tight and I didn't bond them.

Edit:
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=578&start=410
Bryan Cotton
Poplar Grove, IL C77
Waiex 191 N191YX
Taildragger, Aerovee, acro ailerons
dual sticks with sport trainer controls
Prebuilt spars and machined angle kit
Year 2 flying and approaching 200 hours December 23
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Re: Landing gear bolt broke

Postby Skippydiesel » Fri Mar 03, 2023 11:27 pm

Rofomoto wrote:Just landed at home airport, as I turned off runway bolt broke and gear spins in mount. Easy fix with only wheel pant damage but going to change all gear bolts at each condition inspection.


Hi Bryan - please elaborate what/which bolt (s) is this? Photo/sketch might help.
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