It seems like we train for a gear tilt failure every year in the sim. They like to make it into a decision making exercise where the crew has to figure out if they can make it to destination with some of the gear stuck down, since if it doesn’t tilt properly, it won’t retract. It does happen in the real world about once a year too. On some of our short sectors the flight could continue to intended destination with the gear down after such a failure and still land with sufficient fuel.
Main Landing Gear Positioning ??
- Thread starter billt460
- Start date
As a fun comparison, C-5 main gear turns 90 degrees on extension / retraction. It also appears the wheels stay “even”
This at least looks unusual.
Every 767 landing I've experienced has not been glass smooth. Hopefully the 5/67 is still around when I can get seniority for them! What makes it hard to grease the 767?
The forward tilt of the main gear means that the leading two tires will touchdown first.
You have to have the sink rate perfect, runway alignment, and lateral drift perfect, and as that happens, if you get it just right, the airplane will settle on to the rear main gear smoothly.
If not, when the leading edge of the main trucks touchdown, those gear will cancel the drift and align the fuselage, rapidly, lurching the aircraft to the side. It feels rough, even though the sink rate was maybe 1 to 200 feet per minute same as a “greased” landing in other aircraft.
There are other airplanes that are so very much easier. The 747, the 777, and the A320, for example.
I’ve never flown the 737, but the main gear on that airplane caster +/- 4 degrees, so if you don’t have the runway alignment or drift perfect, then the touchdown still feels pretty good to the passengers.
That same level of precision and skill (being off a degree in runway alignment) in a 767 will have people looking at you when they get off the airplane, because they will feel the “lurch“ and assume you just smacked it into the runway, which isn’t what happened.
That makes sense with the lurch, getting the perspective with someone that has the type rating. I have 6000 hours in the 737 and its a real easy airplane to land smoothly. I now fly the 717 and it's a nice handling airplane, easy to land and way quieter in the flight deck!
The tilt actuator depends on the aircraft. For the A330 it's a must in order stow the gear into the hole. For a 787-10 for example. It uses a semi-levered landing gear. The tilt actuator lifts the aircraft up on take off roll in order to increase clearance and improve better angle of attack to prevent a tail strike. The 787-8 & 9 don't have one. There is zero cockpit control. It's all automated via hydraulic sequencing valves or electrically controlled valves. It's very uncommon to have any issues with these actuators. Some may be replaced on the ground others must jack the aircraft to get weight off the gear to install pivot eye bolts.
