A Really Good Job

[jay_merrill]

Here's a video of a pilot doing a really good job of minimizing damage to his aircraft, while making a landing with the nose gear not locked in the down position. The aircraft is a 1950s Cessna 310 - with a straight tail and non-canted tip tanks, I'd say it is a 310B or 310C. Those of you who were Sky King fans may recognize it.

The first thing you will see, is him feathering both engines to prevent breaking the crankshafts in the engines, which is what usually happens when the blades are rotating upon ground contact. You'll also see him "tapping" the starters to align the prop blades as near to horizontal as possible. Finally, you'll see that he holds the nose up in the air with his elevators for as long as possible, thus minimizing airframe damage.

He was a little abrupt in the flare, but considering that he was landing "deadstick" and still trying to align the prop on the #1 engine, I'd say he did a heck of a job. You also don't get everything right like this, unless you practice your emergency procedures alot. Proficiency is the name of the game in flying airplanes, and this guy had it down pat!

http://www.wyff4.com/video/18147317/index.html


PS: This link will take you to a page with other stories (including the one about the war hero that I mentioned in another post) - click on the airplane story to view.

 

[oops!]

Re: A Really Good Job

h o l y smoke !


wow....i wonder why they didnt try a low fly by and with a veihcle on the ground try to pull the nose gear in place........?

but who cares.....he did that text book....to heck with ....from the ground up...!....its from up to the ground !

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: A Really Good Job

h o l y smoke !


wow....i wonder why they didnt try a low fly by and with a veihcle on the ground try to pull the nose gear in place........?

but who cares.....he did that text book....to heck with ....from the ground up...!....its from up to the ground !

Just a guess..... no time?

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: A Really Good Job

wow....i wonder why they didnt try a low fly by and with a veihcle on the ground try to pull the nose gear in place........?

You might have trouble finding someone dumb enough to stand up in the back of a pickup, right in between 2 spinning airplane propellers, while relying on the pilot and truck driver.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: A Really Good Job

i watched this on Fox New Channel, yesterday. he circled the airport for 1 1/2 hours trying to get it down. it had gotten hung up of the bay door, everytime it came down. he circled to burn off fuel, so he could be as lite as possible, when he landed. i think i would fly with him any day.

 

[mthieme]

Re: A Really Good Job

Darn, he had it....what happened?

I video taped a friend of mine when he went through pilot school so he could gfet another perspective. It just so happened it was the day when they cut the engines and you have to land with a dead stick. It was priceless. Coming in, he was about 20' over the treeline, short on the runway landing in the grass in between runways and literally bounced the plane from the hard landing. (So much for ground effect!). Evidenlty, the teacher expected him to start the engine (before the treeline), but he's so stubborn, he would have wrecked the plane first.
Of course I added the appropriate narration!!!

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: A Really Good Job

I did a little surfing on this aircraft after I made the initial post. While "N numbers" don't always remain throughout the life of an airplane, I found Cessna 310 aircraft attached to the side number on this airplane, going back many years. All referenced a 1955 C310, which is what this airplane happens to be. I initially thought it might be a 310B (1958) or a 310C (1959), but apparently its one of the first made.

Interestingly, this aircraft appears to have been involved in gear up landings twice before - once in 1965 because the pilot forgot to extend the gear upon landing (do your GUMP check!!!), and once in 1968 after faulty maintenance had been performed. Apparently the maintenance tech misadjusted something in the second incident. Makes you wonder if the airplane has a landing gear curse!

I too saw some of the news pieces that talked about the pilot flying around for an hour or so. That said, I also went to a flight tracker site, which indicates that the flight was only 14 minutes long, so I'm not sure what the correct info is. It would not be unusual, however, for a pilot to spend some time trying to get the gear to lock. The pilot may have also been trying to burn off fuel to lighten the aircraft, so that holding the nose up would be easier.

Regardless of how it occurred, however, this guy did a great job!

 

[oops!]

Re: A Really Good Job

i saw a vid once.....cant remember if it was in ground school or exactaly where.....they sent a jeep or pic up truck out and the pilot dod a low fly buy with some guy in the truck.....i think it was a mechanic.....he had a long pole and he manually tried to lock the gear in place....


the novembers......( "n" numbers) are just a country registration number n....is the us.

any hoooooo did you see the grin on the guys face after he got out?.....thats not a "were alive" grin.........thats an "i did it" grin

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: A Really Good Job

I've seen that video too, Oops. It was a long time ago, and I'm not even sure what kind of aircraft it was, but it was a pretty brave thing to do on one hand, and sort of a dumb thing to do on the other. A little too risky for my sensibilities.

I've also known of some pretty off the wall remedies for landing gear that won't extend all the way. In many planes, you can "crank" or pump them down by hand. Where there is a mechanical crank, the effort is pretty straight forward but takes a little while. Where there is a backup hand pump, the effort can go smoothly or not. Sometimes what is going on is that hydraulic fluid has leaked from the landing gear system's reservior. In some small planes, that reservior is sometimes accessable (under the floor) from the inside of the cockpit/cabin, and I have even heard of people urinating in them to add enough fluid to the system to get the gear down. Imagine that - saved by that Coke that you thought you shouldn't have had before the flight!

 

[Beefer]

Re: A Really Good Job

The link took me to a local news story about a local war hero found dead due to weather...

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: A Really Good Job

Its on the same page, Beefer. Look for the icon that links to the airplane story.