Page 24 - Volume 13 Number 10

NOSE GEAR
STEERING:
The Bungee
and the Clip
by Dean Benedict
In 2017, the owner of a King Air 200 was landing at his home base; when the nose touched down, the aircraft lurched violently to the right. Luckily, he managed to keep the aircraft going straight down the runway with the nose tire sliding sideways! This was a nose-steering failure.
Once he was safely off the runway, he looked up in the nose wheel well and found the bungee clip broken, as well as the housing for the steering bungee. He called me and let me know what happened. This King Air was fairly new to him. Earlier that year I had consulted on his pre-buy and supervised the inspections, so I had some familiarity with his aircraft. There was no damage to the nose gear, but his shop had to replace the nose steering components and install a new nose tire. This meant he and I weren’t going to meet up at King Air Gathering II (KAGII) in Dayton, Ohio, as we had previously planned.
Coincidentally ...
I was scheduled to make a presentation at KAG II in a hangar with a King Air on jacks for demonstration purposes. My talk was on pre-flighting a King Air with a few tips on exactly what to look for. One of the KAG II attendees volunteered his F90 to be on jacks for the demonstration and he was interested in my feedback on his King Air.
Since I was seeing this aircraft for the first time, I did a preliminary walk around and checked on a few things. When I peeked into the nose wheel well, guess what I found? The nose steering bungee clip was broken and the bungee spring was on the verge of busting loose!
Needless to say, I had plenty to talk about that day.
I don’t normally run across failed bungee clips on a daily basis. This was just a coincidence; however, it points to the need to check out your nose steering from time to time.
22 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
Nose Clip
It’s a good idea to look up into the nose gear wheel well to check the nose steering assembly, always located on the left side. The clip is located at the top of the cylinder and sticks out through the slots.
Expand your Preflight Routine
During your preflight inspection, as you work your way around your King Air, it only takes a moment to poke your head into the wheel well of the nose gear to check the bungee clip and the nose steering assembly. All King Airs have the same nose gear steering setup. The bungee housing is cylindrical with a connecting arm extending forward into the nose gear assembly; it’s always on the left side. On a model 90, as in the photo above, the steering assembly is above the gear door retract mechanism.
The clip has rounded corners that protrude into slots in the bungee housing and should be intact. The slots in the housing should not be enlarged or cracked.
The Bungee and the Clip
Long before people began jumping off tall bridges tethered by a long elastic rope, the word “bungee” was an aeronautical term for “springs or elastic tension
OCTOBER 2019
MAINTENANCE TIP