Landing gear damage

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Bruce66
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Landing gear damage

Post by Bruce66 »

Normally I am pretty careful with landing but for several reasons the other night I set the Comanche down really hard, well bounced it twice really. Oh dear!

I thought for sure I must have done some damage but when I went to the hanger after parking up it was still 'Like new'. I do have damage turned on and due to imperfect fuel leaning I get fouled plugs occasionally.

So the question is, is she really that robust that bouncing down the runway is not to likely to break something or will I see the consequences of my harsh treatment further down the line?
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Scott - A2A
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Re: Landing gear damage

Post by Scott - A2A »

Bruce,

The answer is yes, but with a caveat. We do our best to determine the point where the gear would actually break in the sim, but this area is largely subjective and could and probably is off, either one way or the other. However, when coding this kind of thing we do heavily lean on the strong side because we don't want things this critical breaking too easily.

But the Comanche gear is extremely stout and strong. I've flown my Comanche for six years and haven't had to service the landing gear once, aside from a little adjustment here or there. I think in real life, you would think the struts would come through the wing long before the gear actually gets damaged.

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Bruce66
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Re: Landing gear damage

Post by Bruce66 »

Thanks for the reply Scott.

I will continue to fly conservatively and cautiously but it nice to know in a tight spot it will still likely be ok!
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Scav
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Re: Landing gear damage

Post by Scav »

One thing I’m very conscious about in my line of work, and I know it’s simulated/touched upon in the Comanche and Skylane, is towing limits - specifically turning limits and torque limits, and the consequences of exceeding either. I’ve seen firsthand how stuff can go quickly out of rig with zero warning; doesn’t matter if it’s a Piper, Cessna or Beechcraft.

And of course there’s the three words of dread: Beech shear pins.

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AKar
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Re: Landing gear damage

Post by AKar »

Really hard landings may still cause structural damage even if not as dramatic as some structural failure. Thing is that the airplanes do age. Big part of their structure is made of metals that accumulate fatigue no matter how well they are treated, and landing them excessively hard repeatedly now and then may well be worth of hundreds of flight hours in fatigue life. Further, there are highly stressed parts and components which are never intended to suffer much fatigue at all in service, and are stressed so that their usual loads remain below their fatigue limit (steel alloys, titanium parts if any and some other special alloys come to mind as applicable here). Giving them a one good bang could in principle serve as initiating event for some microscopic cracks to form and to serve as stress concentrators for further fatigue.

An extreme example of this principle is the crankshaft, that should not suffer much any fatigue at all basically in normal service - that's why after any prop strike, no matter how mild, the engine should be taken apart and NDT'd.

-Esa

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