So one of my mechanics was moving our plane 3 feet (backwards) to close up the hangar and the upper trunnion on the nose gear failed, causing the gear to collapse *forward*, the nose to collapse, etc. The face of the barrel of the trunnion literally cracked and peeled off in a way I've never seen. Have any of you ever seen this type of damage?

Just wanted to follow up on this. This damage was traced to exceeding the turn limits of the nose gear, which cracked the upper trunnion and ultimately failed in the fashion seen in the photos.

For those of you in the mid-Atlantic -- I can't say enough good things about the people at Plane Care, LLC in Hagerstown, MD (KHGR.) I replaced the trunnion and ferried it to them and they took care of the rest. The front end looks almost new from the outside and now she's back in business. When I found a donor plane in another town (needed a bunch of stringers, ribs, etc in the nose) they even went there themselves and removed the entire nose firewall forward so the rivets were drilled properly and wouldn't be a mess when attached to my plane. I highly recommend them.



Tim