Chapter 13 - Nose and nose gear - Part 9

Nose gear installation complete. Not much to say here, but I thought I would post a few photos to document the completion of this step. Since the last post I have finished taping the nose gear assembly to the forward bulkhead and I installed the crank and crank ratchet.

I am not sure if I like the ratchet mechanism that I am using, but it seems to work fine. I will leave it and keep an open mind in case a better option is available.

Pictured here is the crank and the ratchet mechanism. The ratchet is used to prevent the crank from rotating and letting the retract mechanism move out of position. If the retract is not fully down and locked the gear teeth will break when the nose wheel contacts the ground. In the photo the crank is positioned up, however I made sure that the crank is in a downward position when the gear is either fully retracted or extended so that there is that little extra available panel space just above the crank. Also visible is an aluminium wedge used to ensure the ratchet is angled both down and to the right ensuring proper alignment. The two machine screws are cheap hardware screws and will be replaced with AN hardware eventually.

Nose gear retracted.

Nose gear extended.