Landing gear lever is stuck

[Maulkin]

I am testing the behavior of the landing gear with and without hydraulics.

 

In the case where I have activated the lever to shut down the hydraulics and the gauge shows zero pressure, I can set the gear lever in the 'down' position and it behaves as it should: The lever goes down, and the landing gear drops.

 

If I then try to put the lever in the 'up' position the lever will not move at all until I reactivate the hydraulics and the pressure level is high enough to raise the gear. I would have expected that the lever would have been able to be moved to the 'up' position but the gear would remain down.

[Slayer]

My guess is it is some kind of safety?? Maybe there's a mechanical lock or check valve when the gear is down with no pressure? Seems like this would be the case as it would unlock the gear which would then buckle when you tried to touchdown? I don't know you would have to ask a rivet counter for some info like that.

[flightace37]

There's no safety down-lock on the aircraft. It was removed to save weight in the D model. That doesn't mean there aren't locking pins to hold the gear in place once they're down; it just means that the pilot is able to raise the gear handle and trigger the hydraulics to pull the gear up while on the ground.

 

P-51 Pilot Training Manual, pp. 16-17 talks about the landing gear system.

 

The landing gear handle must be in the down position before pulling the hydraulic pressure release. Failure to do this is supposed to wedge the gear against the locks that hold them in the up position. (Obviously the story might be different when the aircraft is upside down).

 

Hydraulic pressure should be restored when you push the handle back in (and it is).

 

I know this material doesn't address the OP's concern about the landing gear handle getting stuck in the down position, but it sounds like there's at least one bug involved somewhere in there.