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Old 9th Jun 2018, 11:46
  #56 (permalink)  
Pilot DAR
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 63
Posts: 5,626
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Jeff, Unless there is a specific instruction approved to re arc the gear legs, that no, you can't. If their arc is not correct, they are damaged, and not airworthy. If their arc is correct, but not to your liking, that's just the way the planes was approved. There are detailed dimensions for landing gear, arrangement, particularly propeller clearance, which would have been demonstrated during certification (for the STC), so although the plane might look low, if the gear legs are not damaged, they're probably okay. I had problems with my taildraggers loosing the arc of their tail springs, and there are no replacement parts. I would re arc them by pressing cold, but the arc would not stay. I eventually made new spring leaves in accordance with the drawings, and they seem to be fine. The heat treating followed by NDT inspection was detailed and costly, but has produced the desired result. I doubt you'll want to get involved in trying to reproduce Cessna gear legs, if they're damaged, there should be other used airworthy parts available for purchase.

If you suspect a gear leg is bent (which can happen) the first check would be to roll the aircraft onto greased plates, as described in the maintenance manual. Using sting and squares measure the toe in and camber. Though Cessna does not provide values for the 150 (as they never made it as a taildragger), either the STC instructions should give you values, or you could refer to the values for a Cessna 140A, or a Cessna 170, which should be suitable. At the very least, the toe in and camber angles should be the same left and right. I have flown planes (C 180) where one gear leg was bent, and those angles wrong, and it was miserable on the runway, until corrected. If the error is minot, Cessna does sell shims for the axles.

Yup, GPS fails every now and then, it's happened to me (panel mounted and two handhelds would not get a fix for over an hour). Never abandon good old pilotage when flying VFR!
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