Service Letter No.15 Landing Gear

[Steve Ahrens]

Hi Porterfield friends.

Digging through some old docs I received with my Skinny Bird; I discovered a service letter (attached) relating to landing gear bolts recommending the bolts be removed every 25 hours and inspected carefully, with special attention to the bolt in the shock pad cap. It goes on to say that in no event should the landing gear bolts remain in service for more than 200 hours.

Has anyone experienced landing gear bolt wear and how often do you remove and inspect or replace the bolts? Or is this something that came about from the early training days with many varied landing excursions and maybe inconsistency of bolt quality?

[Andy Gelston]

You have answered your own question, Steve. Those bolts were subjected to the terrors of ham-fisted students operating out of lumpy, grass strips. The CAA (later, FAA) never felt it needed to be an AD, just a good idea. The amount of flight time our birds see, the bolts likely are changed out every 200 hours or less, when they are rebuilt/restored/recovered every thirty years or so.

Good idea: yes!

Required by an AD: no!