The good news is that this entire issue is a false alarm. The bad news is I feel like an idiot!. I was getting ready to take some additional pictures for you and took an alcohol soaked cloth to clean the gear for better pictures - lo and behold, after wiping for a while the "crack" disappeared. It appears it was just a dirt streak that looked like a crack. The only excuse I'll try and make on my behalf is that I did ask the resident A&P for his opinion - I guess his eyesight is no better than mine.
I am very happy however that my confidence in Sling is now back at 110% I apologize for wasting time on the forum
I ate my humble pie too soon. After I wheeled the aircraft back into the hangar the crack has reappeared. Looks like it opens and closes bases on the position of the gear or the surface (?)
Anyway clearer picture of the crack is in this message.
Sling says the gear must be replaced - that's going to be fun
Replacing the gear will be a bit of a task, as you note, but it will also give you an important view of the health of the rest of the structure. Will be very curious to see how everything else looks and how the remaining components are wearing.
Did Sling ask you to send back the gear once you have removed it for analysis? It will be interesting to see if this was a singular occurrence / defect or if it is indicative of something deeper in the design.
Good luck with the replacement - it was a good catch on your part, and I am most appreciative that you have been so transparent with sharing this with the broader group of builders/owners.
We are electing to have Sling paint and ship us the replacement landing gear assembly (rather than fly from FL to CA to have them do the work).
They haven't asked for the old gear yet - they might later.
We used build-assist so the gear was already in place when we turned up. For those with experience of installing the gear from scratch, what work should we expect to have to do? How much disassembly will be required? The build manual is very vague about exactly how this is done.
I did a flat build kit, so I installed my own gear.
IMHO it's not horrible to step through that process. The biggest issue will really be to get the plane supported off the gear to remove it. In thinking through it you'd want to get all the fuel out of the wings (make the plane as light as possible, and then some flat platforms to lift the plane up because you will need to get inside the plane, or have really long arms to reach the bolts.
On each side of the fuselage there is going to be an upper and a lower bolt holding the gear in place. You'd start by removing the skin on the bottom of the plane just below the gear. They are all the 3.5mm rivets (or 142 from the sling part numbers). Once that's off, you can remove the bolts holding the gear in place (one top, one bottom on each side) and the gear should just drop out.
It's a simple process to reverse it to get the near gear back in place. If you log into the Slingshot parts page and access the build manuals section. Look for the Undercarriage manual and flip through it until you get to the page covering installing the landing gear. It should be about Page 11 for the Tsi. Once you get the bolts in place the gear is locked in. Having two people for this process is really required with one on top and the other on the bottom. At least that's how I did it.
After the gear is in place with the four large bolts then it's a matter of installing the bottom skin.
I also would heavily inspect the bolts that come out as well. If they don't offer new bolts as part of the new gear I'd ask for them just in case.
I'm seriously hoping this is just a manufacturing defect.
Unsolicited advice - you should get in the habit of always having the relevant maintenance manual on hand whenever you do any work on your aircraft, particularly the sort of major surgery you're talking about here.
As it turns out we just decided to expedite this by flying the aircraft cross country from Florida to Torrance. The aircraft is now being worked on and we'll fly back commercially when it's ready for the return trip. Advice from the factory is that it was safe to fly (with gentle landings!) We made it ,so I guess that was correct.
I really think this was a manufacturing defect causing delamination. This is a thick piece of composite - hard to believe it would be the first thing damaged on any kind of adverse landing. Hopefully just a oe-off
I was getting ready to take some additional pictures for you and took an alcohol soaked cloth to clean the gear for better pictures - lo and behold, after wiping for a while the "crack" disappeared. It appears it was just a dirt streak that looked like a crack. The only excuse I'll try and make on my behalf is that I did ask the resident A&P for his opinion - I guess his eyesight is no better than mine.
