Possible Gear Damage?

[Ryan Smith]

Hi guys,

There has been a 1951 A model for sale around here for quite some time now, and I finally took a trip down today to check it out. Other than being covered in bird droppings and a layer of dust, the airplane seems to be in good shape. From what I gather, it hasn't flown in several months (I'm going to guess closer to a year) and I have made contact with the owner to get some more information about it, but he was not at home and couldn't recall much by memory. I'd like to help it find a new home, as I hate seeing airplanes rot away; particularly 170s. There is a Maule M4-220C tied down outside at the same airport that is a sad sight to behold.

Anyway, I noticed some slight damage to the fuselage at the junction of the right gear leg. The plate is wrinkled, and the gear leg appears to be all the way forward in the opening. Is this indicative of a hard landing or possible ground loop? Is there a chance that there are some missing shims in the gear legs, or could there be some torsional flex to the gearbox requiring the gear to be shimmed fully forward like that? There is some slight wrinkling to the skins underneath the gearbox on that side of the aircraft as well.

[c170b53]

That's not slight damage, when the bulkheads have deformed, a look inside will reveal more, offloading that gear will also give you an idea as to the extent of damage

[wingnut]

Jim is correct; That's not light damage. I'll bet if you pop the panels inside and take a look at the gearbox bulkheads you will see unspent money

[Ryan Smith]

What is the likely culprit of that damage? Groundloop?

I say slight because they're small wrinkles, but I noticed them within 30 seconds of walking up to the airplane.

[cessna170bdriver]

I can't think of a scenario that would cause the gear leg to get shoved forward like that...

I can think of one, but I can't imagine what the airplane was actually doing when it happened. Del hasn't mentioned any gearbox damage, but maybe he hasn't gotten that far yet...

photo.JPG

[GAHorn]

It could be from either/and/or ground loop or hard landing or run over object.
I'm reminded of a ground loop I once witnessed in which the airplane went around 540 degrees and ended up rolling backwards at a good clip and went into a ditch.

This sort of thing can also happen when being towed incorrectly or if hit by another vehicle.