Manually raising gear...

[Alexander Seil]

Is there any way to raise gear manually in the Mig-21?

 

I had a bent left gear, initially I could raise the right one, but the front and the left could not be raised. After lowering the right gear again, I tried raising and everything was stuck. I tried doing some high-G maneuvers to the limited extent possible under such circumstances, but the gear doesn't seem to move. Tried to have the raise gear lever up, and with manual emergency gear levers engaged.

 

This, surprisingly, would actually have a use case - MiG-21's weapon systems are locked as long as the gear is down, so if you have to take off like that in an emergency (or don't feel like waiting 3 minutes after a bad turn...), you're screwed.

[xxJohnxx]

No, there is no way to retract the gear besides the primary gear retraction mechanism.

 

The backup relies on gravity to extend the gear and makes it lock in place once it is out. For safety reasons those locks can not be removed by any means other than the primary gear retraction mechanism.

 

Given how critical a failure of such form is, you don't really want to bring the gear in anyway, because who knows if it will extend again.

[Paradox]

In such a circumstances you would land as soon as possible and let the ground crew do their jobs.

 

If that isn't possible because of a busy airfield or if you're under desperate orders to intercept something nasty immediately then you might be on the losing end of a fight.

[xxJohnxx]

In such a circumstances you would land as soon as possible and let the ground crew do their jobs.

 

Probably fly a holding pattern to burn some fuel though.