Get FinancingLanding Gear Maintenance: AAI Explains Why Overhaul Matters
Your landing gear is arguably one of the most important components of your aircraft. It absorbs impact, provides a suspension system, and facilitates braking and steering of the aircraft while on the ground.
The landing gear takes a beating every time it is used because of the force of it hitting runways consistently. This causes a lot of stress, which is why it is so important to prioritize regular and required maintenance.
In this article, we’re going to focus on the time requirements and reasons landing gear needs to be removed and overhauled, as well as life limits and other aspects of the overhaul process.
Understanding Landing Gear Overhaul
Landing gear overhaul involves removing the landing gear from the aircraft to perform thorough checks for wear, corrosion, damage, and cracks. Overhaul isn’t optional; it’s mandated by the manufacturer of your aircraft to ensure safety.
Overhaul requirements vary by manufacturer. For example, Beechcraft (the manufacturer of King Air turboprops) requires inspection or overhaul every 6 years or 8,000 cycles, whichever comes first. A “cycle” happens every time your aircraft takes off and lands.
Aircraft landing gear overhaul guarantees specialized inspections and repairs are performed using the correct tools and expertise, and it ensures airworthiness certification through FAA 8130-3, giving you confidence that your landing gear is being taken care of.
Manufacturer Requirements
Aircraft manufacturers have different requirements for landing gear inspection or overhaul. As we mentioned above, Beechcraft requires inspection or overhaul every 6 years or 8,000 cycles. Hawker is every 12 years or 5,000 cycles, and the Bombardier brand Challenger is every 96 or 192 months. As you can see, each manufacturer has vastly different requirements, so don’t ever assume that yours is the same as another!
Here are a few definitions you should be familiar with:
- Cycles: number of takeoffs and landings
- Calendar years: time since new or last overhaul
- FAA 8130-3: official airworthiness certificate issued by a part 145 repair station
- Part 145 repair station: facility certified by the FAA to perform maintenance, repair, and overhaul on aircraft components
- Life-limited: a component that has a fixed, finite lifespan determined by engineers and mandated by the FAA
Most landing gear is life-limited, which, for example, means its landing gear might be exposed to 30,000 cycles before it has catastrophic failure. For this reason, it is important for the aircraft operator to keep a detailed log of how many cycles their aircraft has.
AAI checks the birth certificate of every landing gear that enters our facility to make sure we’re not certifying a landing gear that has timed out.
On-Condition Landing Gear Overhaul
While there are scheduled maintenance requirements for aircraft landing gear, there are situations where an overhaul is required outside scheduled intervals. Some common issues prompting removal are hydraulic leaks, structural damage, and corrosion.
Issues left unaddressed can cost you thousands of dollars, not to mention lengthy downtime for your aircraft if uncorrected.
Best Practices For Maintenance & The Consequences Of Neglecting Landing Gear Overhaul
To extend the life of your landing gear and reduce overhaul costs, here are a few things you can do:
- Perform preventative maintenance tasks like keeping it clean, lubricating, and conducting regular visual inspections.
- Regularly clean landing gear components to remove moisture and contaminants.
- Replace small parts proactively.
- Align overhauls with major inspections to minimize aircraft downtime.
AAI Is A Part-145 Certified Repair Station That Can Perform Thorough Landing Gear Overhaul Services
The landing gear overhaul process can feel like a daunting task, but it is absolutely necessary to keep your aircraft compliant and safe.
Detailed, thorough, and expert work is required to get the job done the right way. At AAI, we know your ultimate goal is to get your plane fixed so you can fly. That’s why we go above and beyond to help you avoid extra costs by creating repairs and manufacturing the parts on your aircraft that are prone to corrosion and wear, like landing gear components.
Challenger aircraft require quick maintenance and overhaul turnaround times. You don’t want a hangar full of planes propped up on jacks, creating a traffic jam for everyone trying to maneuver around them. AAI completes landing gear inspections and repairs in-house so that parts get turned around quickly, and you can return your aircraft to normal operation.
Do you have questions about AAI’s process or available parts? Contact us for more information, and be sure to sign up for our Frequent Flyers Email Newsletter to get our articles, updates about industry events, and links to our favorite online content delivered right to your inbox every month.