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The bungees help in gear retraction. I'm wondering what happens if one breaks. Has
anyone had this happen, and if so does the gear not retract, but can still (hopefully)
be lowered?
Hello:
I have had a very similar event (although one bungee slipped off a roller and was not broken.)
The gear lowers just fine. The issue comes in retracting the gear. Just as it reaches the limits of its travel the gear motor requires a great deal of current. The circuit breaker is quite sensitive and it is possible that the circuit breaker will trip, due to the increased load, before the switch that turns off the gear motor is reached.
Depending on circumstances you might not notice that one bungee is absent. What you are most likely to see is that sometimes, almost randomly, the motor circuit breaker will pop while the gear is on its way up.
In this case the most likely outcome is that you will need to reset the breaker before lowering the gear.
Regards,
William
While a break is possible, in my forty years of Comanche ownership I have never heard of a bungee breaking.
The AD requires replacement every three years or 500 hours, whichever comes first, buy by three years they have stretched a bout an inch, maybe an inch and a half so there is merit in replacing bungees annually.
