REFLECTOR: PERFECTO -- THEN MURPHY'S LAW

[Sid Knox]

Hi Tom,
Bummer, but could have been a lot worse...

> When I pulled the nose gear down it would not lock into place.

This is the only almost-useful piece of info but it begs the questions:
1) When you "...pulled the nose gear down...", was that by opening the dump 
valve and letting it drop or from using the pump?
2) it did not lock on its own when it dropped or it did not drop far enough 
to lock?
3) if it did not drop far enough on its own, was that perhaps because of 
some result of the
gear-up landing?
4) did it lock when you "helped" it down?

You haven't told us enough yet to make any better than wild guesses.  If it 
was mine, I'd jack it up, put a charger on the battery and cycle the gear as 
many dozen-of-times as required to observe and confirm some anomaly.  And 
also, without using the pump...
5) open the valve
6) pull it up by hand, close the valve to hold it up,
7) open the valve, let it drop and observe what happens.
8) repeat 6) and 7) until your arm gets tired than get someone else to do 
it...

Regards 7), mine will usually not lock "over-center" on its own just sitting 
on jacks and dropping by opening the dump valve without a slight kick on the 
front of the tire.  When airborne, with wind loading, it always locks as 
expected.

Sid Knox
Oklahoma

Velocity  173 RG  N199RS
Starduster  N666SK
KR2         N24TC
W7QJQ