Nose gear recurring AD

[Steve]

So Rich - it appears that your strut has an obvious crack, that I assume wasn’t there at the last inspection. You don’t even need dye penetrant to see it.

[Rich]

So Rich - it appears that your strut has an obvious crack, that I assume wasn’t there at the last inspection. You don’t even need dye penetrant to see it.

It does appear that maybe there is a crack starting. The undercuts were a surprise. I guess we just hadn't been really looking before. Here's a higher magnification picture.

[Steve]

I'm starting my next Annual in October. I don't recall that my nosegear pivot has an undercut like that, but I will check it and take some closeup photos. On yours, there is definitely a big crack near the top of the weld, plus there also looks like a crack (or perhaps a casting defect) to the left of the undercut area near the bottom of the picture.

[Rich]

It should be noted that my plane has less than 2000 hours total time and has never been used in a flight school environment where you might see 30+ touch and gos in a day. A very few instances of taxiing off pavement onto parking areas and never been operated on unpaved runways.

[Rich]

Let's correct the record. Previous picture looked kind of grim, right? So I cleaned it up. It turns out all the bad-looking stuff was just all various schmutz (aka grease, dirt, etc). The surface and joint is actually pristine and shows no visible evidence of any cracks. However, note the surface roughness ring on the strut surface. This seems to be in the outer area of the upper bushing surface. I suspect dirt gets trapped in that area. Further investigation TBP.

Nose strut after cleaning with alcohol

The reddish hue is the reflection of my phone case. The undercut on both surfaces is readily visible if you look closely.

[Steve]

Well, that certainly looks much better. Whew! I wonder if the undercut is there to act as a reservoir for grease. I will have to look at mine.

[astaib]

Hello,

Is the new AD only for Canada ?

Arnaud.

[mhoran]

EASA: https://ad.easa.europa.eu/ad/CF-2023-50R1
No FAA AD yet.

[Bing]

Despite testing and inspection, my nose gear collapsed on brake check on the ramp several years ago. That defective $5k part turned into a new prop and engine rebuild. Luckily, it didn't happen during landing or it could have been much worse.

It's not just bad landings that can cause cracking. If your FBO uses a large tug to pull the plane around, sharp turns can cause the nose wheel to hit the stops and subject the strut to a fair amount of torque. Since my incident, I don't let anyone pull it with anything larger than a golf cart. The smaller vehicle has less power and provides more feedback to the driver that the limits have been reached.

[astaib]

Despite testing and inspection, my nose gear collapsed on brake check on the ramp several years ago. That defective $5k part turned into a new prop and engine rebuild. Luckily, it didn't happen during landing or it could have been much worse.

It's not just bad landings that can cause cracking. If your FBO uses a large tug to pull the plane around, sharp turns can cause the nose wheel to hit the stops and subject the strut to a fair amount of torque. Since my incident, I don't let anyone pull it with anything larger than a golf cart. The smaller vehicle has less power and provides more feedback to the driver that the limits have been reached.

Thank you for this feedback.
I just ordered the NLG to have it replace during my next annual in february. I don't want to make the initial inspection as I anyway have to change it according to the MSB.
Cost is 3200 euros for the part only...