Fairchild Club Forum

It was suggested that the landing gear bolt should be replaced with a hardened bolt so that the gear won't shear.

I supposed either it will shear the bolt and the fuselage will come down, or the bolt won't shear, and I'll bend the fuselage? What are some opinions on this and where can I get bolts whether hardened or otherwise?

Mike

Its really hard to tell because the drawing is so blurry, but I think the factory drawings call out standard aviation grade, AN bolts. They are a good compromise between hardness and toughness. You can get them from Aircraft Spruce.

If you want hardened bolts, a Grade 8 bolt has a rockwell hardness in the mid-low 30's on the C scale and is a little harder than an AN bolt. They are also made from a higher tensile strength material, 150ksi vs 120ksi. Grade 8 bolts are a little more brittle though. They will typically break when an AN bolt will bend though.

If you want even harder bolts, you'll probably have to get them custom made. Cost would not be terrible, but it wouldn't be super cheap either.

With all this said, I have no idea what Jamie put in my airplane. I assumed that they were standard AN bolts, but maybe not? I try to land as gently as possible

Went with the standard bolts ... but, I'm dealing with prop issues at the moment so I'm grounded anyway. However, although its taken about a month and a half, I am heading down this weekend to get the repairs done and get her back in the air!

Mike