 |
Matronics Email Lists
Web Forum Interface to the Matronics Email Lists
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
mike_beresford(at)yahoo.c
Guest
|
 Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:53 pm Post subject: Wheels up |
 |
|
HI all
Yesterday I managed to join the ranks of pilots who
have landed with gear up - not something I wanted, but
there you have it.
To briefly describe the circumstances, I joined on
late downwind at my home airport. The weather was a
bit hazy, with high level clouds. There was one
aircraft on base, and another coming in to join on
base. I didn't have either aircraft visual, and was
particularly worried about the one coming in to join
base. To top it all we had an airspace violation of
the CTR of the nearby international, with the culprit
being close to us and on descent. I was thus very
preoccupied with looking out for traffic. On downwind
I selected gear down, heard the pneumatics operating,
but I cannot remember confirming with either lights or
stalks that the gear extended. The rest of the circuit
was normal until touchdown. On touchdown it felt like
we touched, held and then fell down onto the runway -
ie it felt like a gear collapse. However, a witness
about a kilometre away said the gear was still up.
Either way, we slid down the runway for a while and
then veered off to the side. I used the brakes (they
DO work) to stop, fortunately well clear of the active
and taxiways.
Summary of aircraft visible damage is the broken prop
blades. Tips are obviously gone. Fortunately I touched
down at idle, so hopefully no major damage to the
engine. The initial touchdown was on tar, and the
surrounding area was grass with soft earth. Even the
tail skid at the rear seems undamaged. Both of us
walked away without a scratch.
I'm still not sure exactly what happened. The gear was
definitely selected "down", the air was "on", and
there was suffificent pressure in the system. The rear
cockpit control was at neutral. We'll have to await
the report of the AMO next week.
At the end of it I am feeling very cross, because this
was avoidable. I'm usually very precise about cockpit
drills. I should have picked up the failure to extend
or lock, and used the emergency system.
One thing which did impress us was the damage
tolerance of the aircraft. The emergency crews said
they'd never seen such an easy aircraft recovery after
a wheels up, and the damage seems minimal. Not even
the underside of the rudder is scratched. Seems like a
solid bit of engineering, let down by the soft
machine!
Blue skies
Mike
--- Mark Jefferies YAK Uk <mark.j(at)yakuk.com> wrote:
| Quote: | I must apologise to Mick, thank you for sharing the
information with the
list, please continue to do so.
I stand by my point it was pilot error. The pilot
removed the pressure that
held the leg in the down position, simple as that.
An error. Why do this?
Its not in any flight manual published by DOSAAF or
the OEM that I have
seen.
Regarding the u/c ram. This a/c being a 1991 a/c if
properly maintained has
had its gear ram seals changed on 2 occasions by
now. Remember these seals
are 5 years life item. The insurance company if it
is looking to apportion
blame is to refer to the maintenance company that
signed for the changing of
the seals on the last occasion, presumably they
assembled the ram
incorrectly.
Further, the person/ company that did the last
annual inspection is also
implicated in the failure because he failed to do
the inspection IAW
manuals. Just to be clear here, when the a/c is on
jacks every 50 hrs or 1
year and the u/c system is being internally
lubricated, emg cycles/
retractions etc. the last check to do with air
pressure neutral, Is to check
that the folding link will not break, ie checking
to see that the locking
balls in the ram have engaged. This is done by
pushing hard at the centre of
the folding link. Its very clear also that the
maintenance company did not
do this or they would have found the problem.
As we know there are very few accidents where one
item/ occurrence is the
cause, its usually a chain of events.
Regards, mj
Ps, we all make mistakes, I put my hands up to a
number, never get
complacent.
Pps I only take the digest so always 24 hrs behind
the drag curve.
|
___________________________________________________________
Win a BlackBerry device from O2 with Yahoo!. Enter now. http://www.yahoo.co.uk/blackberry
| | - The Matronics Yak-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Yak-List |
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
dsavarese(at)elmore.rr.co
Guest
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:13 am Post subject: Wheels up |
|
|
I'm sorry to hear about your mishap Mike, but I do have one question. Do
you have a habit of moving the gear selector slide lock to the right when
the gear selector is in the UP position? I have seen this before and when
preoccupied we listen for the air escaping while cycling the gear to the
DOWN position, thus we assume the gear is down because we hear the air
escaping. Due to preoccupation, we don't bother to check for lights and
poles . But because the slide lock is to the right, the gear handle only
goes to the neutral position. We proceed to land and then it happens.
Once again, I'm sorry to hear about your incident, but am glad you're safe
and sound.
Dennis
---
| | - The Matronics Yak-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Yak-List |
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mike_beresford(at)yahoo.c
Guest
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 12:04 pm Post subject: Wheels up |
|
|
Hi all
Dennis, I usually don't close the latch when the gear
is "up". I do slide it over as soon as the gear
selector is moved to "down" - and in this case the
latch was in place.
The local AMO is away for a week, so I'll probably
only hear the formal assessment in a few weeks.
Blue skies
Mike
--- "A. Dennis Savarese" <dsavarese(at)elmore.rr.com>
wrote:
[quote]
<dsavarese(at)elmore.rr.com>
I'm sorry to hear about your mishap Mike, but I do
have one question. Do
you have a habit of moving the gear selector slide
lock to the right when
the gear selector is in the UP position? I have
seen this before and when
preoccupied we listen for the air escaping while
cycling the gear to the
DOWN position, thus we assume the gear is down
because we hear the air
escaping. Due to preoccupation, we don't bother to
check for lights and
poles . But because the slide lock is to the right,
the gear handle only
goes to the neutral position. We proceed to land
and then it happens.
Once again, I'm sorry to hear about your incident,
but am glad you're safe
and sound.
Dennis
---
| | - The Matronics Yak-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Yak-List |
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
dsavarese(at)elmore.rr.co
Guest
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 3:28 pm Post subject: Wheels up |
|
|
Mike,
Do you recall what the air pressure was in the main system when you moved
the gear selector to the down position?
Dennis
---
| | - The Matronics Yak-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Yak-List |
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mike_beresford(at)yahoo.c
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 6:49 am Post subject: Wheels up |
|
|
Hi all
Dennis, it was above 40 bar. I'd been having some
compressor problems in the previous months, and was
monitoring the pressure during the flight.
Blue skies
Mike
--- "A. Dennis Savarese" <dsavarese(at)elmore.rr.com>
wrote:
[quote]
<dsavarese(at)elmore.rr.com>
Mike,
Do you recall what the air pressure was in the main
system when you moved
the gear selector to the down position?
Dennis
---
| | - The Matronics Yak-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Yak-List |
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
dsavarese(at)elmore.rr.co
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:15 am Post subject: Wheels up |
|
|
OK. Thanks.
Dennis
---
| | - The Matronics Yak-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Yak-List |
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Frank
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 69
|
| Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:37 pm Post subject: Wheels up |
|
|
Mike
It is my understanding the Russians purposely designed the aircraft to
sustain minimal damage in a gear up. Got to hand it to those Russians, eh?
Frank
--
| | - The Matronics Yak-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Yak-List |
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
Get Email Distribution Too!
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
