On Feb 19, 7:03�pm, Bob Martin wrote:
Morgans wrote:
"William Hung" wrote in message
...
http://www.sa-transport.co.za/aircra...by-5a_ra98.JPG

OK, I've seen pictures of PBYs with;

1. All three gears down and the outer potoons down,
2. All gears down, potoons up,
3. Gears up, potoons down,
4. and now the above picture with only the main gears down, but nose
wheel still tucked in and pontoons still up or maybe no pontoons.

My question are; are the gears controlled individually, are the
pontoons controlled separately, are the font and main gears controlled
separately also? �If so, why?

�I would say the above mentioned aircraft is about to have a very noisy
runway landing, if you get my drift. �I vote for gear failure.

Maybe it's a case of one gear (nose in this case) retracting before the others? �I've
noticed many airplanes where each gear retracts at different rates, or one part of the
gear retracts before the others. �I think it just has to do with how the hydraulics are
run and all that. �Not sure about this case though.

On multiple occasions, I've seen F-15 nosewheels fail to retract; most of the time they
cleared it by cycling the gear, but twice I noticed it not retract even after cycling. �I
guess the pilots really had to pull the power off quick so they doesn't overspeed.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Some civilian owned PBYs have added valves to allow retraction of one
gear at a time for servicing. The tip pontoons are on a seperate
system, a single drive motor in the pylon driving shafts in the
leading edge of the wing.