On Mon, 16 May 2005 11:47:25 +0200, "Frode Berg"
wrote:

Hi!

I had a rather embarrassing hard landing yesterday in a cross wind.
Been years since that happened, most touchdowns have beed silk smooth (sort
of) lately, but yesterday, I somehow managed to flare too high, resulting in
a hard landing, as I also failed to apply corrective throttle to arrest the
inevitable sink rate....
So, the plane settled with a loud squeak on the mains, and came rather
quickly down on the nosewheel....
A slight bounce also occured....not a pretty landing obviously...

I'm not minimizing the consequences of a hard landing, but I think we
need to define hard landing.

And you call that a hard landing? :-))

When it jars your teeth, and/or skids sideways, or hits on the nose
gear you have a hard landing.

Cherokees (and Arrow is a Cherokee with folding feet) can take one
whale of a rough landing.

Anyway, I am writing this to ask if theres anything in particular that I
should look for as warnings that something might have been damaged with the
landing gear.
The plan is a '68 Arrow, and as far as I could see it looked fine parked.
I notice the nosewheel strut was a bit lower than normal (probably from the
abrupt lowering on touchdown) but I lifted it up manually, and it stayed the
way it normally is.

It's probably just soft. You have to hit awfully hard to get to nose
gear strut to lose height... Unless the seals are worn.

All Cherokees including Arrows. Check the top surface of the wing
above the main struts. Look for deformation, or popped rivets.

Some one else gave a good list of things to check.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

So, what should I check for in the main and nose landing gear after a non
greaser like this?

Thanks, and pleas no "you should have done this or that" as I already know
most of what I did wrong...:-)

Blushing regards,

Frode