# SAIB CE-09-16: Landing Gear: Main Landing Gear Torque Tube - Type: Special airworthiness information bulletin (advisory, not mandatory) - Status: Current - Revision: 0 - Issued: March 3, 2009 - Products: Cessna 310L, 310N, 310P, 310Q, 310R, 320E, 320F, 335, 340, 340A, 401, 401A and 13 more - Product type: Aircraft, Small Airplane - PDF: https://openairdocs.org/files/sha256/02/39/0239cf7693d421ff03f4f89e2f5d0a3cf8351e5ab7b6a82cd7fff56686c9f8d6 - FAA DRS: https://drs.faa.gov/browse/excelExternalWindow/7776CB532F365CC18625756E006B897F.0001 - DRS record last changed: March 3, 2009 - Page: https://openairdocs.org/saib/CE-09-16 ## Text FAA Aircraft Certification Service **SPECIAL AIRWORTHINESS** INFORMATION BULLETIN SAIB: CE-09-16 SUBJ: Landing Gear: Main Landing Gear Torque Tube Date: March 3, 2009 This is information only. Recommendations aren’t mandatory. Introduction This Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) reminds owners and operators of the Cessna twin engine aircraft listed below of the importance of carefully inspecting the main landing gear (MLG) torque tubes per the applicable structural inspection document (SID) and making sure the landing gear are properly rigged. Affected Cessna Aircraft Company Models: 310L, 310N, 310P, T310P, 310Q, T310Q, 310R, T310R, 320E, 320F, 335, 340, 340A, 401, 401A, 401B, 402, 402A, 402B, 411, 411A, 414, 421, 421A, 421B. At this time, the airworthiness concern is not an unsafe condition that would warrant airworthiness directive (AD) action under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Aviation Regulations (14 CFR) part 39. Background Recently the FAA learned of an incident involving a Cessna 401 airplane. The Cessna’s right MLG collapsed on rollout following an otherwise uneventful flight. Although it was unrelated to the gear collapse, subsequent investigation revealed a fatigue crack in the MLG torque tube. Such fatigue cracks could cause failure of the torque tube and result in failure of the gear to retract. The gear collapse was thought to be caused by a mis-rigged downlock switch. Proper landing gear rigging is critical for safe operation of the landing gear. The August 2006 issue of AC43-16A has some very good pictures of a cracked 5045010-19 torque tube removed from a Cessna 414 with the following caption “The L/H main gear bell crank assembly (P/N 5045010-19) cracked and failed when the gear was selected to ‘up’.” There are many other service difficulty reports (SDRs) that show when a torque tube fails, the main gear does not retract fully and the pilot sees a discrepancy in the gear warning light system. Recommendations We recommend that owners and operators of the aircraft listed in the Introduction section ensure: 1. their maintenance personnel review pages 9-10 of the August 2006 issue of AC43-16A (http://www.faa.gov/aircraft/safety/alerts/aviation_maintenance/media/2006/2006_08_Alert.p df); 2. the pilots give feedback to the maintenance facility when a gear retraction anomaly occurs (when one main gear does not retract it is possible to see a discrepancy in the gear warning light system or a noticeable drop in climb or cruise speeds); 3. their torque tubes are cleaned and carefully inspected per the applicable Supplemental Inspection Document (SID); and 4. their maintenance personnel properly rig the main landing gear per the applicable maintenance manual. For Further Information Contact Ann Johnson, Aerospace Engineer, 1801 Airport Road, Room 100, Wichita, KS 67209; phone: (316) 946-4105; fax (316) 946-4107; email: ann.johnson@faa.gov (Optional) For Related Service Information Contact Cessna Aircraft Company, One Cessna Boulevard, PO Box 7704, Wichita, KS 67277; phone: (316) 517-6000. ## Registered aircraft it may concern (OpenAirDocs) Registry models matched by make and model, the same way as ADs, most registered aircraft first. - [Cessna 340A](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-340a): 543 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 310R](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-310r): 361 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 310Q](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-310q): 277 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 414](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-414): 242 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 421B](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-421b): 225 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 340](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-340): 164 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna T310R](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-t310r): 140 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 310L](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-310l): 62 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 310P](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-310p): 61 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 310N](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-310n): 55 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna T310Q](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-t310q): 50 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 402B](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-402b): 49 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 421](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-421): 28 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 320E](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-320e): 27 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 335](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-335): 26 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 401](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-401): 21 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 421A](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-421a): 20 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna T-310P](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-t-310p): 16 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 401A](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-401a): 15 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 401B](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-401b): 15 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 320F](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-320f): 12 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 402](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-402): 7 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 411](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-411): 6 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 411A](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-411a): 4 registered aircraft (airframe model) - [Cessna 402A](https://openairdocs.org/model/cessna-402a): 3 registered aircraft (airframe model) --- OpenAirDocs.org is an independent research project of [Contrail Labs](https://contraillabs.com/). It is not affiliated with the FAA or the NTSB. Source documents are U.S. government works in the public domain.