How expensive is maintaining the retractable landing gear for a Glasair 2 or 3?

[DMD3.]

I used to browse on the Lancair Talk forums, though I’ve since forgotten my password. The way they talked, the cost of maintenance for the landing gears were pretty negligible for the extra airspeed you get (at least for the 320/360 and Legacy models) if you did all the work and CI’s yourself. Now if you’re an owner who goes to a shop or hires someone , that would drive up the cost substantially and you’d be better off with a fixed-gear or another airplane entirely. How is maintenance for the Glasair 2 and/or Glasair 3’s? Does it get expensive or is it fairly marginal?

Insurance is another big financial hurdle, probably more so than the maintenance, but in this thread I’m simply asking about maintenance (I’d probably either get only hull insurance or just self-insure).

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

L-IV
touching wood, I’ve had very little gear problems - certainly nothing expensive, on the LT forum there is occasional chat about it with the 2-seaters but nothing out of the ordinary.
My pal has a G-III and he’s had the usual that any retractable airplane has, minor hydraulic leak & actuator re-sealing.
I would not base any aircraft choice for L or G’s on gear mx.

For insurance, don’t call around for prices, especially giving an N#. Paul on LT will give you the details, there is a preferred process to getting quotes / locking it in.

Not sure if you can buy liability only, isn’t that what you meant?

 

[FORANE]

I used to browse on the Lancair Talk forums, though I’ve since forgotten my password. The way they talked, the cost of maintenance for the landing gears were pretty negligible for the extra airspeed you get (at least for the 320/360 and Legacy models) if you did all the work and CI’s yourself. Now if you’re an owner who goes to a shop or hires someone , that would drive up the cost substantially and you’d be better off with a fixed-gear or another airplane entirely. How is maintenance for the Glasair 2 and/or Glasair 3’s? Does it get expensive or is it fairly marginal?

Insurance is another big financial hurdle, probably more so than the maintenance, but in this thread I’m simply asking about maintenance (I’d probably either get only hull insurance or just self-insure).

Presuming similarity between Lancair and Glasair, you're correct the cost of maintenance for the landing gear has been pretty negligible. But, I'm not familiar with parts availability on the Glasairs; it's not a problem on the Lancairs. The real cost is if maintenance is not performed and a gear collapses. Then you're looking at a prop, engine teardown, composite repairs, etc.

 

[DMD3.]

L-IV
touching wood, I’ve had very little gear problems - certainly nothing expensive, on the LT forum there is occasional chat about it with the 2-seaters but nothing out of the ordinary.
My pal has a G-III and he’s had the usual that any retractable airplane has, minor hydraulic leak & actuator re-sealing.
I would not base any aircraft choice for L or G’s on gear mx.

For insurance, don’t call around for prices, especially giving an N#. Paul on LT will give you the details, there is a preferred process to getting quotes / locking it in.

Not sure if you can buy liability only, isn’t that what you meant?

Yes, liability.

 

[DMD3.]

I would not base any aircraft choice for L or G’s on gear mx.

MX is typically very expensive for certified RGs (johnson bar Mooneys being a possible exception), so it’s definitely something I considered.

 

[FORANE]

To provide a couple examples for the Lancair parts, here's some who offer them:

Northern Labs

Developer and manufacturer of replacement and custom performance enhancing parts for the Lancair aircraft. Involved with Lancair aircraft for 30 years. Aerospace engineer with product design and flight test back ground.

www.northern-labs.net

LANDING GEAR – O'Day Design LLC

odaydesign.com

Also Paul Miller at lancairtalk has some gear parts on the shelf available for purchase.

 

[ArrowFlyer86]

MX is typically very expensive for certified RGs (johnson bar Mooneys being a possible exception), so it’s definitely something I considered.

What do you define as "very expensive"? It will cost more than fixed gear maintenance, sure, but it's not an obscene sum.

I say that as a certified retract owner.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

L-IV since 2018, ~800hrs:

Tires
Tubes
Brake linings
Discs, soon
Preventively, nose shock strut overhauled
Bearing clean & grease

Note that all the above applies also to fixed gear a/c.

Other:
Rack grease
Bad microswitch
Annual new overcenter strut ~$120

 

[GaryM]

It’ll be cheaper than not maintaining it.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

gear expense has really never factored into any of my plane purchases, maybe others are different - I do recall a few 210’s with seemingly unsolvable problems but I doubt even that is fleetwide.

 

[Scotty66]

I have a Glasair 2 RG. My mechanic has rebuilt 2 of the actuators. Approx $10 in o-rings each and 1 hour labor for removal and rebuild. The cost is negligible compared to the speed gains. Parts and hydraulic pump are readily accessible and very cheap compared to certified aircraft prices. Placing plane on jacks and swinging the gear is very easy.
At this year conditional I want to rebuild the front strut. Again, very inexpensive and easily accessed while the plane is on jacks.

 

[DMD3.]

What do you define as "very expensive"? It will cost more than fixed gear maintenance, sure, but it's not an obscene sum.

I say that as a certified retract owner.

What do you define as "very expensive"? It will cost more than fixed gear maintenance, sure, but it's not an obscene sum.

I say that as a certified retract owner.

$5k-$10k almost every annual for just the landing gear alone. I’m aware an aircraft doesn’t have to be an RG to have expensive repairs; a bone simple plane such as a Cherokee 140 or C150 can chew a 5-digit hole in the wallet. But if it’s every single annual then that’s an issue.

 

[FORANE]

In the approximately 25 years I've owned a Lancair I've probably spent between $5k-$10k in total on all the gear maintenance I've done on mine. I consider myself diligent on maintaince also. Of course that's mostly parts cost as I do the majority of maintenance personally. I have farmed out the nose strut overhauls though.

 

[ArrowFlyer86]

$5k-$10k almost every annual for just the landing gear alone. I’m aware an aircraft doesn’t have to be an RG to have expensive repairs; a bone simple plane such as a Cherokee 140 or C150 can chew a 5-digit hole in the wallet. But if it’s every single annual then that’s an issue.

It's pretty much not possible to run up a $5k-10k bill in landing gear every year on any of these single engine pistons unless you just crash your plane into the ground... every year. Maybe one of the A&Ps can correct me, but I've never heard of a case where someone was paying that for gear annually... That'd be insane.

For reference, I would be disappointed if my annual bill for retract-specific gear maintenance was 1/10th of that -- and that's on a certified aircraft requiring certified parts and real A&Ps doing the work.

For reference, here was my most recent annual -- landing gear specific items (price right column). And those hoses will last for a long time, not an annual thing.


2025 Annual no gear specific maintenance items, this was part of the base agreed price I pay for inspection:


2024 annual: $137.50 for retract gear items


Routine retract gear mx is not that expensive, at least for the P28R.

EDITED: Removed a couple sentences. Instead just going to copy in the work referenced in annuals so OP has an idea of mx work.

 

[DMD3.]

L-IV since 2018, ~800hrs:

Tires
Tubes
Brake linings
Discs, soon
Preventively, nose shock strut overhauled
Bearing clean & grease

Note that all the above applies also to fixed gear a/c.

Other:
Rack grease
Bad microswitch
Annual new overcenter strut ~$120

Do you do your own maintenance or do you pay someone? Also is your IV turbocharged (I’d assume it is but some of them are not).

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

Do you do your own maintenance or do you pay someone? Also is your IV turbocharged (I’d assume it is but some of them are not).

mostly my own but periodically I let the lancair airframe guru check it over
TSIO-550-E