REFLECTOR: Quiet, need a topic - Retract issue

[Geoff Gerhardt]

Guys,

Yes, it has been quiet.  A bit cold here in MA to fly, but hope to get out
this weekend.  Since flying off my Phase I test flight hours, my plane has
been doing very well.  Almost all the little squawks have been taken care
of, and I'm running out of excuses to head out to the airport to work on
the plane.  The one remaining issue that I have is with the retract system.
 Its a problem I noticed during Phase I flight testing.  When I test the
system on the ground, it always works perfectly.  But, very often, when I
go to put the gear down in flight, when I flip the switch down, nothing
will happen.  If I leave the switch down, usually...eventually (5-10sec?),
the gear pump will come on and the gear will come on.  If I press the reset
button briefly, the gear will come down fine.  So, this sounds like a
low-pressure switch issue, to me.  I replaced the high-pressure switch
during the build b/c I found it was not tripping properly.  I don't really
understand what would cause the switch to act like this, tho.  Perhaps the
vibration of flight is causing a faulty low-pressure switch to become
engaged?

I had an email exchange with the fellow that designed the RG electrics (his
name escapes me right now).  He insisted that there is nothing in the
electrical system that could cause symptoms like this, and thought I may
have a leak b/w the high/low sides.  I checked this, tho, leaving the gear
up and locked overnight, and no pressure was measured on the low-pressure
side.

Anyway, I think I'll just order a replacement low pressure switch and see
if that fixes it.  But, if anyone has an other ideas, let me know.

Thanks.

Geoff
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