REFLECTOR: gear collapse in Tahoe?

[Tom]

It was a friend of mine that is home based there at TVL...he flys a long  EZ. 
  On initial final as Mike was hand cranking the nose gear down,  the handle 
and shaft it was connected to broke off in his hand. 
 
He flew around for about an hour burning fuel, waiting for the fire  
department and equipment to get fully prepped...and he was trying to use any-all  
tools in his bird to move the gear down to no avail...so he was ready for  
it...sure enough once the canard stopped flying and full weight hit the half  open 
gear it collapsed...minimal damage to paint on the nose...he has a block of  
wood or aluminum bonded in as a resting pad as the EZ's "Graze"...That pad took  
all the abuse.
 
Larry Lambert


A gear up in an EZ in really a non event. I completed a Varieze many years back and simply had glassed a shoe sole in where
it would normally rest on its nose. In a gear up this would just partially wear away and there was a layer of glass under the 
sole anyway so you were good to go immediately. I watched a local friend land his Long-Eze at Sun-N-Fun with the nose gear up, 
he stopped on the runway, got out, cranked the gear down and taxied away. It took about 5 minutes to repair. Tom