Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 120; Flight Crew Total 2000; Flight Crew Type 130
Distraction; Confusion; Troubleshooting; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
ASOS weather taken from my TOLD card that I kept from the day of the incident: XA:05Z 360/3 3SM -SN BR 024 OVC -1/-2C A29.92 Runway used: 7;008 FT x 100 FT. Runway conditions: light dusting of snow all surfaces. Approach used: VOR/DME. After parking and just before shutdown; the right main gear warning light illuminated. Initially I thought a micro switch had been fouled by some ice so I dismissed the notion of anything being wrong at that point of the shutdown process. I continued to unload the freight from the aircraft and returned to the cockpit thereafter to call in numbers. It should be noted that during the unload; I felt the aircraft shift slightly as if someone had pushed the tail quite hard but that the aircraft never returned to the neutral point; almost as if the airplane had slid downhill 3 inches. Again; at the time I didn't think anything of it other than the thought in my mind of 'that felt kind of weird.' Turning on the battery switch again illuminated the right main gear warning light so I went to check the micro switches. It was at that time that I discovered the outboard drag link on the gear had sheared from the main gear itself. I took pictures and sent them to Maintenance for preliminary inspection. The landing itself was not unusual in any way. Touchdown was approximately 100 FT beyond the thousand foot markers. On a scale of 1-10; 10 being perfect; was probably a 6. Not great but I've had much worse. No unusual side loading occurred and directional control was maintained throughout the rollout and no indication that any malfunction had occurred even during the taxi to park. Airport Operations later conducted a runway inspection and found part of the sheared drag link approximately 3;000 FT down the runway 3 FT right of the centerline. After close inspection by a mechanic; further damage was discovered deep within the gear well itself. Further inspections are pending.
A SA-226 pilot reported discovering a fractured outboard main landing gear drag link after the right main landing gear warning light illuminated at the gate.