Tail Wheels

[DryMartini]

The rigging of the up and down stop switches is a bit of a pain to accomplish, especially if a failure happens to occur on the road. Heck, there are a few photos of wartime Forts (The Swoose II comes to mind) with the tailwheel down in cruise also.

Scott, you jinxed the show!
"Texas Raiders" had gear problems at Thunder - partially due to the limit switch.
Luckily, they had the gear fixed Sunday afternoon, but they missed the
Sunday flight.

[Second Air Force]

I suspected it might have been something along those lines that afflicted TR. It's good to hear that the fix was relatively simple. The procedure for rigging the limit switches on the main gear actuator screws is quite involved. I was just a sheetmetal flunky when I worked on Raiders, so I'm off the hook on this one!

While I'm talking switches, go back and look at the little box on the tail wheel assembly in my earlier photos. That box has a switch that is linked to the centering lock system for the tailwheel and won't let the gear retract if the wheel is unlocked. We've all seen photos of the various airworthy Forts with the mains up and tailwheel down. Sometimes it is because the tailwheel lock pin has failed and the safety circuit is preventing the gear from retracting. During the gear extension/retraction check we unlock the tailwheel, caster it to one side, and then try to retract it. If it doesn't move we're good, if it does it means checking the switch for problems.

Scott

[DryMartini]

I suspected it might have been something along those lines that afflicted TR. It's good to hear that the fix was relatively simple. The procedure for rigging the limit switches on the main gear actuator screws is quite involved. I was just a sheetmetal flunky when I worked on Raiders, so I'm off the hook on this one!

They burned out a motor, too, so it was not quite simple.

While I'm talking switches, go back and look at the little box on the tail wheel assembly in my earlier photos. That box has a switch that is linked to the centering lock system for the tailwheel and won't let the gear retract if the wheel is unlocked.

I know exactly what you are talking about.
Ray from "Lucky Thirteen" is cleaning/coating our tail gear, and I'm assembling all the tail
wheel part diagrams on CD. That cover is 1100 aluminum, & microswitch from The Microswitch
Corporation, Freeport, Illinois. Anyone want any more (useless to some) trivia?

[Second Air Force]

Yeah, that can often be the result. The retract/extend motor doesn't know to quit running if the switches fail to open the circuit.

Scott