From kls Thu Dec 5 02:27:18 1996 Newsgroups: sci.aeronautics.airliners Path: bounce-back Date: 05 Dec 96 02:27:18 From: J P McLaughlin Subject: Re: MD-88 Nose gear trouble References: Message-ID: Approved: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM Sender: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM Organization: The Gecko Group Reply-To: jp@thegeckogroup.com Robert M. Rike, Jr. wrote: > We pass right over the > end of the runway. The pilot cirlced like this two or three more > times with the flaps partially extended. Then he came on and > announced that they were having a problem getting a green light on the > nose gear saying that it was locked. Does this mean it was extending > but not locking in position? This is more often than not a sensor problem rather than a physical problem with the gear. The low passes across the airport permit personnel on the ground to visually report to the crew what they see. Also it would be fairly common to cycle the gear 2 or 3 times to see if the sensor begins to behave. I was a dispatcher at Flying Tigers back in the 1970s and we often had this problem with the older DC-8s, but I can never recall a time when it wasn't the light that was the problem.