f4f wildcat landing gear question

[tom d. friedman]

i looked at some pics of my friend's latest wreck chase of an f4f wildcat crash. among the wreckage was the landing gear crank handle. i know this was prevelant on early wildcats, & was a bear to raise or lower the gear, & timing was of the essence. did later wildcats eventually have mechanical landing gear or was it still manual cranking??

[Brad]

i looked at some pics of my friend's latest wreck chase of an f4f wildcat crash. among the wreckage was the landing gear crank handle. i know this was prevelant on early wildcats, & was a bear to raise or lower the gear, & timing was of the essence. did later wildcats eventually have mechanical landing gear or was it still manual cranking??

Tom,

They were always manual. There have been a couple outfitted with electric motors in the last few years though.

[Larry Kraus]

Tom,

Her's the page from an FM-2 manual that describes the gear retraction and extension procedure.