Nose gear recurring AD

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nathanda40
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Re: Nose gear recurring AD

Post by nathanda40 »

mhoran wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 5:46 pm Apparently our original 2007 nose gear leg just failed the inspection. Don't yet have an estimate on cost nor downtime. Hoping it'll be better than 4 to 6 weeks but I'm expecting many thousands of dollars. So frustrating, since we just got the plane back after six months of downtime due to overhaul. Looks like a $15k+ annual.
that's a bummer, sorry to hear

i am starting to think about just ordering the part to have on hand for the inevitable. how much was the part?
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mhoran
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Re: Nose gear recurring AD

Post by mhoran »

$4500, 6-8 week lead time. This sucks.
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Rich
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Re: Nose gear recurring AD

Post by Rich »

mhoran wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 5:56 pm $4500, 6-8 week lead time. This sucks.
This is the second recent one I've heard of. I'm pondering whether to go ahead and order one to avoid the possibility of another surprise downtime. It isn't that hard to replace. Do the donuts at the same time - just because.
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Steve
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Re: Nose gear recurring AD

Post by Steve »

Sorry about that Matt. I anticipated doing the dye penetrant inspection on my next Annual Inspection, but it looks like I will have almost a years worth of hours left before the 200 hour interval. I may be able to put it off another year. I console myself by repeating the mantra, "No rough fields, my landings are as smooth as silk" over and over...

My gear leg (and the airplane) has 1435 landings on it so far...

...Plus about a dozen in Austria and Canada that I didn't participate in...
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Re: Nose gear recurring AD

Post by Davestation »

Place the order AOG and you should get it sooner. $5k-ish
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Re: Nose gear recurring AD

Post by BuzzB »

...and during AI last month, a slight crack was detected in my 2002 DA40. Part (about $4500) immediately put on order, 3 to 5 weeks delivery quoted. But by some miracle it actually arrived 10 days after the order was placed.
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nathanda40
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Re: Nose gear recurring AD

Post by nathanda40 »

BuzzB wrote: Wed May 03, 2023 12:04 am ...and during AI last month, a slight crack was detected in my 2002 DA40. Part (about $4500) immediately put on order, 3 to 5 weeks delivery quoted. But by some miracle it actually arrived 10 days after the order was placed.
interesting thanks for the data point

do you service yours at Gibbs by chance? thinking to give them a try
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Re: Nose gear recurring AD

Post by mhoran »

When taking through the estimate with Glenn at SouthTec he suggested it likely wouldn't take long but that Diamond wouldn't commit to getting it to me any faster. I did ask him to stress to Diamond that 6-8 weeks would be unacceptable after six months of downtime due to overhaul and that I'd have to cancel a planned summer trip to California. We'll see...

Sounds like quite a few of us may be dealing with this soon.
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Re: Nose gear recurring AD

Post by BuzzB »

Yes, I service the plane at KMYF. Shop now carries the name San Diego Aircraft Service Center. Highly recommend.
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Re: Nose gear recurring AD

Post by mhoran »

Stumbled across this accident report re: the _1 nose gear leg which is quite interesting: https://www.mitma.gob.es/recursos_mfom/ ... ort_nm.pdf.

It suggests that Diamond is currently working with Transport Canada to update the existing airworthiness directive. This would bring the AD in line with the latest MSB which moves the inspection interval from 200 hours to 100 hours for the original part and the _1 part. Apparently this is held up due to the type of dye penetrant testing that should be performed. I noticed that on this years inspection SouthTec used a kit from Diamond to perform the test. The accident report suggests that it may be fairly common that the previous tests may give false confidence based on the type of penetrant test performed (type I vs type II penetrant).

Installing the _2 part is supposedly the terminating action for the as yet unreleased AD. However, the AMM still requires inspection of the NLG at 100 hours. However, this is purely a visual inspection unless cracks are suspected, when a penetrant test should be performed.

It looks like the _2 part has an additional 1mm of wall thickness on the nose leg fork pivot. Tests suggest that the _2 part may last 6 to 10 times longer than the _1 version.

Finally, the report suggests that the failure in this case was rather sudden. The accident airplane was just 110 hours since the recent 200 hour penetrant test and 11 hours since the last 100 hour visual inspection. This suggests the failure occurred rapidly between 100 and 110 hours. That was my experience as well.
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