What's the pin for?

What does it mean when the crew of an aircraft look for "the pin" held by the
ground crew after pushback?

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In a previous article, Mxsmanic said:
What does it mean when the crew of an aircraft look for "the pin" held by the
ground crew after pushback?

It disables the reset button.


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Mxsmanic wrote
What does it mean when the crew of an aircraft look for "the pin" held
by the ground crew after pushback?

They are looking for the Nose Gear Ground Locking Pin to insure
that it has been removed prior to flight. If not, the nose gear
will not retract.

Bob Moore
ATP B-707 B-727

Most fighters have three pins...both mains and nose gear. PapaGeorge

"Bob Moore" wrote in message
6.128...
Mxsmanic wrote
What does it mean when the crew of an aircraft look for "the pin" held
by the ground crew after pushback?

They are looking for the Nose Gear Ground Locking Pin to insure
that it has been removed prior to flight. If not, the nose gear
will not retract.

Bob Moore
ATP B-707 B-727

"6 and 2, counted and stowed" (B-52 checklist response)
6 gear pins and 2 steering lock pins
BT

"PapaGeorge" wrote in message
nk.net...
Most fighters have three pins...both mains and nose gear. PapaGeorge

"Bob Moore" wrote in message
6.128...
Mxsmanic wrote
What does it mean when the crew of an aircraft look for "the pin" held
by the ground crew after pushback?

They are looking for the Nose Gear Ground Locking Pin to insure
that it has been removed prior to flight. If not, the nose gear
will not retract.

Bob Moore
ATP B-707 B-727

Bob Moore writes:

They are looking for the Nose Gear Ground Locking Pin to insure
that it has been removed prior to flight. If not, the nose gear
will not retract.

Thanks. What's the purpose of this pin on the ground? (I assume it isn't
there just to prevent the gear from retracting while the aircraft is on the
ground (?).)

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PapaGeorge writes:

Most fighters have three pins...both mains and nose gear.

What do they do?

I thought aircraft usually had interlocks that would prevent gear from
retracting as long as they had weight on them.

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"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
What does it mean when the crew of an aircraft look for "the pin" held by
the
ground crew after pushback?

The gear pins mentioned by others here are usually removed by pilots or
mechanics well before pushback for flight. The pin that the pushback crew
holds up is the steering by-pass pin. Without the pin in place, the towbar
is free to swing with the nose wheel steering and could cause serious injury
to persons and equipment. The pin is held up for the pilots to see so that
the pilots know they will have steering before they start taxiing.
Additionally, at my airline and at United, the nosewheel steering is turned
off in the cockpit because the steering may swing momentarily during
electrical power transfer as the engine-driven generators come online.

D.

On 2007-03-13 18:09:05 -0700, "BT" said:

"6 and 2, counted and stowed" (B-52 checklist response)
6 gear pins and 2 steering lock pins
BT

C-130 had a bunch of pins, too, but I don't remember how many.

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World Famous Flight Instructor

Capt.Doug writes:

The gear pins mentioned by others here are usually removed by pilots or
mechanics well before pushback for flight. The pin that the pushback crew
holds up is the steering by-pass pin. Without the pin in place, the towbar
is free to swing with the nose wheel steering and could cause serious injury
to persons and equipment. The pin is held up for the pilots to see so that
the pilots know they will have steering before they start taxiing.
Additionally, at my airline and at United, the nosewheel steering is turned
off in the cockpit because the steering may swing momentarily during
electrical power transfer as the engine-driven generators come online.

Thanks for the detailed answer. I was also able to look up "bypass pin" after
reading your reply and got some additional detail ("pin" alone was too
general).

What's the relationship between the tiller and the rudder when it comes to
steering? I understand that most large aircraft have a separate tiller wheel
that can be used to turn the nose gear on the ground, but it also seems that
the rudder turns the gear, too (?), at least during landing and take-off.
What determines the interaction of the two? There doesn't seem to be any
cockpit control that governs how they work in the aircraft I've studied.

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