REFLECTOR: Nose gear doors

[johnward]

Velocity Standard RG Elite -  Took off, raised gear, red unsafe light illuminates.  Wife was monitoring 122.75 at our strip so I did a fly-by and she reported the nose gear doors were open.  Put the gear down, got two green lights, and landed without any further problems.  Recent Savannah incident was going through my mind.  After taxiing into the hangar, (through the open doors) and parking, discovered the one inch allen screw that goes through the end of the nose gear retract cylinder had broken.  I had a big check mark on page 5, Builder Hints & Information, by Scott Swing in the latest issue (Volume 39) of Velocity Views.  I had recently overhauled the retract cylinder (recent is February) and don't have a bushing that restricts the upward travel of the retract piston and was going to check the operation/adjustments.  I thought all along that my adjustment was okay and the hydraulic piston was fully retracted without bottoming out on the slide guides.  If my memory serves me well, while doing a drop check, I recall being able to reach in through the top hatch and wiggle the swing arm ball joints and click the up indicating micro switch which indicated the piston was already fully retracted and not jammed up against the slide guides.   Scott's article describes how to fix the problem.   When the repair is complete will check to see if I need a bushing to keep the swing arm ball joint fitting from bottoming out on the slide guides. 
    The February incident is only a factor because the gear door were readjusted at that time.  That problem was noticed when preparing to start the engine.  With the battery on the hydraulic pump continued to run.  Investigation showed hydraulic fluid leaking from the bottom of the nose gear door retract cylinder.  Over time, continued hydraulic piston extension caused the aluminum end piece of the cylinder to cone out until the "C" clip was forced out of the bottom of the cylinder.  Got an overhaul kit from Velocity and with Scott's help fabricated a steel end cap for the hydraulic cylinder which is much stronger than the original aluminum.  A steel end cap vice aluminum is now standard on those hydraulic cylinders.
John Ward
      
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