That "no-GUMP" Scratching Sound

Marco Leon wrote:

I hope to never hear this first-hand. Of course I've increased the
odds in my favor quite a bit by flying a fixed-gear aircraft.

http://www.flightlevel350.com/Aircra...e_RG_II-Airlin
e_Private_Aviation_Video-7951.html

Enjoy, err, I mean cringe!

Marco

They landed a fair way down the runway didn't they? Considering they
apparently were expecting a no gear landing, shouldn't they have
touched down as close to the threshhold as possible to give maximum
stopping distance/
Mind you it does look like a rather long runway anyway.

--
Oz Lander.
I'm not always right,
But I'm never wrong.

The breaking action you get with a gear up landing is pretty good,
don't need too much runway. If they were really cool they chose their
touchdown point so that it was a short walk to their car.



On Feb 21, 5:04 am, "Oz Lander" wrote:
Marco Leon wrote:
I hope to never hear this first-hand. Of course I've increased the
odds in my favor quite a bit by flying a fixed-gear aircraft.

http://www.flightlevel350.com/Aircra...e_RG_II-Airlin
e_Private_Aviation_Video-7951.html

Enjoy, err, I mean cringe!

Marco

They landed a fair way down the runway didn't they? Considering they
apparently were expecting a no gear landing, shouldn't they have
touched down as close to the threshhold as possible to give maximum
stopping distance/
Mind you it does look like a rather long runway anyway.

--
Oz Lander.
I'm not always right,
But I'm never wrong.

Does anyone know if the aircraft would have likely suffered
significantly less damage had they chosen to land on the grass instead
of on the runway?


On Feb 20, 4:10 pm, "Marco Leon" wrote:
I hope to never hear this first-hand. Of course I've increased the
odds in my favor quite a bit by flying a fixed-gear aircraft.

http://www.flightlevel350.com/Aircra...ne_RG_II-Airli...

Enjoy, err, I mean cringe!

Marco

"Tony" wrote in message
oups.com...
Does anyone know if the aircraft would have likely suffered
significantly less damage had they chosen to land on the grass instead
of on the runway?

The latest version of conventional wisdom is that you slide on concrete or
asphalt, but on grass you risk having an airframe part dig in and cause an
out of control situation (a flip over, perhaps).

The point that gets overlooked sometimes is that the first priority is to
walk away from the landing. If the airplane is relatively undamaged, that's
a bonus.

KB

Tony,

Does anyone know if the aircraft would have likely suffered
significantly less damage had they chosen to land on the grass instead
of on the runway?


Common (or maybe not so common) wisdom is to land on the runway if at
all possible. The grass has a high danger of the plane digging in.
Damage will be less on a hard surface.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

On Feb 20, 5:38 pm, "Peter R." wrote:

I cannot tell - Was this a pilot mistake or a gear failure?

My guess is that it was a pilot error. I think the poster was the
cameraman as well and the pilot's patting of the dash was another
clue.

Marco

On Feb 20, 6:18 pm, (Paul Tomblin) wrote:

So what's the story? It's pretty obvious from the alarms going off and
the way the camera goes to the side window just before touch down that
they knew the gear wasn't down, but why?

I don't think it was a gear failure. As I responded to Peter's post,
the poster of the video seems to have been the cameraman as well. If
that's the case, the caption on the video page claims that it was
pilot error. The pilot pats the dash in a way I would if I screwed up
like that.

Then there's the short approach. If I had a known gear problem, I
would have probably been on a long final to ease the vertical load and
pick my spot carefully. I fly a fixed-gear so I'm not familiar with
proper technique.

Marco

Marco Leon wrote:
On Feb 20, 5:38 pm, "Peter R." wrote:

I cannot tell - Was this a pilot mistake or a gear failure?

My guess is that it was a pilot error. I think the poster was the
cameraman as well and the pilot's patting of the dash was another
clue.


If that was pilot error, he's certainly got a lot more restraint than I'm
blessed with. You'd have heard me cussing in the next county. Hey, when I'm
not happy, nobody's happy.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

On 2/20/2007 6:25:20 PM, Peter Clark wrote:

I'd have to go with failure. The gear horn was going off the whole
time, and the lack of reaction at touchdown lends me to lean towards
"they knew it was coming".

I was wondering what that klaxon was. My Bonanza's gear warning horn sounds
like a stall warning horn and is continuous, not intermittent.

--
Peter

The point that gets overlooked sometimes is that the first priority is to
walk away from the landing. If the airplane is relatively undamaged, that's
a bonus.

Good point. Since our recent fatality here in Iowa City, I've spoken
with many people about emergency procedures. The number one thing
they all say is that, at some point, you must GIVE UP ON THE PLANE.

Apparently it's a fairly common thing for pilots -- especially young,
very proficient ones -- to forget that the plane is secondary to
their survival. They keep trying to save the plane beyond the point
where it is too late to save themselves. (No, this is not what we
think happened here in Iowa City, but it's just one of the many
possibilities.)

From what the "gray heads" have told me, stopping the engine, bumping
the prop till it's horizontal, and landing on the grass, gear-up, all
fall into this category. Doing stuff that might save the paint, at
the risk of catapulting you end-over-end, or doing anything that takes
your attention away from flying the plane (in what is, after all, a
VERY unusual situation) can cause (for example) an inadvertent
stall.

If you're in an emergency, your immediate thought has to be "this
plane is now the insurance company's plane" -- and fly it
accordingly. When you're talking about airplanes -- things that many
of us invest with almost human-like qualities -- this may be the
hardest part of any emergency landing.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"