Piper Arrow gear question

[tawood]

So I’m on a cross country, landed in the middle of nowhere for gas, and on restart noticed I have some sort of failure in my alternator/ charging system (0 on the alt meter /don’t have a volt meter). It’s currently dark out so I’m grounded for the night, and I’m thinking that getting a mechanic out here even in a day or two might be a little tough. What I’m thinking/ wondering is this:
Does the arrow need an electrical system to keep the gear up? Im only 30 minutes or so from a more major airport. If I waited until morning/ daylight, took off and retracted the gear, then shut off the master, would the gear stay up until I got to the other field, then I could turn the master back on, lower the gear/radio call, and land…? I suppose I could also just leave the gear down and putt over too…

 

[exncsurfer]

So I’m on a cross country, landed in the middle of nowhere for gas, and on restart noticed I have some sort of failure in my alternator/ charging system (0 on the alt meter /don’t have a volt meter). It’s currently dark out so I’m grounded for the night, and I’m thinking that getting a mechanic out here even in a day or two might be a little tough. What I’m thinking/ wondering is this:
Does the arrow need an electrical system to keep the gear up? Im only 30 minutes or so from a more major airport. If I waited until morning/ daylight, took off and retracted the gear, then shut off the master, would the gear stay up until I got to the other field, then I could turn the master back on, lower the gear/radio call, and land…? I suppose I could also just leave the gear down and putt over too…

I don't know but the POH says this which to me implies that it will stay up, but do you want it stuck up?

 

[Arbiter419]

Sounds like if you're there overnight you might have a few mins to read over the systems descriptions sections of your POH...I'm not a substitute for that but I'll tell you that your Arrows gear is held up by hydraulic pressure only. Depending on how tight your system is, they may stay up for a week at a time, or they might need the electric motor to spin the pump over to maintain pressure up every 20 mins. I'm not your lawyer, flight instructor, doctor, etc...but if it were me, I might fly to the next suitable maintenance facility with the gear down and locked. That's assuming that this is simply a failed alternator with no faults in the gear system.

 

[hindsight2020]

The gear is an electrically motored hydraulic pump. You need current to pressurize the system for the upcycle, but once pressurized, the system pressure hold the actuators in the retracted position. Eventually leak losses sag the gear, and the system triggers the pump to re electrify and build the pressure back up.

The downcycle also uses electricity, but if you dont have it it's not a big deal as the alternate gear extension is just a simple dump valve that relieves the hydro px, and the gear falls down by gravity. The only thing you wont have without any electricty (assumes depleted battery) is gear confirmation lights.


I have had an alternator failure in cruise. I turned the master off to save the battery for comms, and kept cruising fat dumb and happy back to home plate. Gear stays up with retained pressure. In my case i turned master back on and got the gear extended and landed. Nothing to it. If the battery had been dead, i would have dumped the hydro px and had gear down just the same just no gear lights.

Your dilemma is that you already know your alternator is dead. So you'd be taking off with a known malfunction. A gamble if something happens and the feds start poking around. But if we re gonna play the hypothetical game, i wouldn't retract the gear as you run the risk of killing your battery for comms at your destination. Id just fly with the gear hanging, shut off the master and just go master on for comms when you get to your reposition airport. I assume this is a short ,(sub 20nm) hop.

New airplane and already AOG, good times aint it? Good luck and fly home safe.

 

[Skip Miller]

Think about what would make your flight safer. I would leave the gear down and locked. Save the battery power needed to raise the gear for your radios, transponder, etc.

IMHO. -Skip

 

[tawood]

I just two weeks ago practiced a few emergency gear extensions by pulling the fuse on the pump, then doing the emergency gear extension as described in the manual. My gear actually went down quicker/ better / smoother with the emergency extension than the normal extension, so I’m not over worried about getting it down without power. But I suppose the safe bet is to not raise it up in the first place.

 

[tawood]

…New airplane and already AOG, good times aint it? Good luck and fly home safe.

Third major problem in 2 weeks (vacuum pump shattered two weeks ago and a mag imploded last week)…I don’t know how many more times I can tell my girlfriend we’re “getting the bugs out” before I stop believing it myself.

 

[A1Topgun]

Leave the gear down and throttle back to keep your airspeed in the gear down range. Also, for emergency gear down you need to reduce airspeed and reduce throttle. The nose gear is coming down forward into the prop blast/airspeed with only a measly spring to help it into position.

 

[tawood]

Leave the gear down and throttle back to keep your airspeed in the gear down range. Also, for emergency gear down you need to reduce airspeed and reduce throttle. The nose gear is coming down forward into the prop blast/airspeed with only a measly spring to help it into position.

Thanks, got it to a mechanic this morning, and it’s being checked as we speak…problem is, alternator worked on takeoff, then quit, so I shut off the master. Then on landing, I turned on the master and it worked for most of the landing, then quit on taxi. Intermittent problems I know can be harder to deal with so we will see.