Any Pilots Here?

[HodgdonExtreme]

Originally Posted by Kerbie

That's gotta be one of the dumbest moves I've ever seen. He's out of position when he goes full throttle, doesn't reduce power as he drives on the grass, pulls full-aft on the yoke way before he's ready to fly and then tries to "drive" the plane to the right with the yoke as if it's a car! Wow... I wonder how much experience he had... before the FAA got hold of him. That's painful.

I think he's lucky the plane didn't have enough lift to get above the hangar - I suspect he would have stalled - with fatal results...

[Kerbie]

Originally Posted by HodgdonExtreme

I think he's lucky the plane didn't have enough lift to get above the hangar - I suspect he would have stalled - with fatal results...

Exactly. As hard as he was pulling back, I don't think he would have made it into successful flight.

[Fogducker]

I like these directions for flying;

1. To make houses look smaller----pull back!

2. To make houses look larger----pull back farther!

Fog

[rllink]

As a pilot, but also an AI mechanic who worked part time for a Fixed Base Operator at a small municipal airport since a teenager, I can not see the FAA investigating a pilot who called clear of the runway a second or two prematurely. I guess it makes for good video though.

[Huskyman]

Thought I would revisit this thread. I live in a rural desert area and when I walk my dogs we walk out into this large desert area and it is separated by a chain link fence from this small uncontrolled airport. The airport is not very busy but it has a bit of action on the weekend. So today when we are walking down the dirt road next to the fence we come up on a small plane that came to rest about 2 feet from the fence. The prop was stuck in the ground and bent, the nose gear looked like it has collapsed and the left wing tip was bent a bit. It was about 500 feet off the runway and you can see the tire marks where it came off the runway and ended up where it did.

I have no clue what happened as but I am guessing that he came in to land and maybe the nose gear collapsed and he lost control and left the runway? That's my guess anyway.

I was talking to someone later on who had the job of getting the plane out of there and he had no idea what happened but he said the pilot was fine and more embarrassed than anything else.

[Kerbie]

Ooo... a very bad day at the office. That's a trashed prop and it could have destroyed the engine. Depending on the wingtip damage, it can probably be repaired without too much trouble. It'll need a new nose gear.

Five hundred feet is a pretty good distance off the runway for a small plane. Could you tell if it left the runway early in his rollout or late? If the pilot is learning, he might have negotiated the winds poorly. They can push you off the runway with ease.

Did you see skid marks leaving the runway? Sounds like he must have been at a pretty high speed. If he were landing... probably too high. Not good... he'll be having a chat with the FAA.

[rllink]

Prop strike = engine teardown. Just to add insult to injury.

[Kerbie]

Originally Posted by rllink

Prop strike = engine teardown.

It would help to know if the prop were moving at the time and I didn't think we knew that info.

[rllink]

Originally Posted by Kerbie

It would help to know if the prop were moving at the time and I didn't think we knew that info.

Prop stuck in the dirt, that's enough for me. I wouldn't sign it off without one.

[Bob Womack]

One of the little local airports, Hampton Roads Airport, has some interesting history. Lockheed C-60 Loadstar "Lady Loadstar," operated by the local chapter of the Commemorative Air Force, lost her brakes on arrival and ended up in a ditch to the left of the main airstrip, cleaning off her landing gear and suffering two prop strikes. They never got her back together and she ended up being trucked to CAF headquarters in Arizona. She was eventually sold as-is by a private aircraft sales group.

At that same airport, the Doobieliner, a Martin 4-0-4, burned to the ground while the Doobie Brothers played in Norfolk over labor day weekend, 1974.



A few years ago I heard of a fly-by with a bunch of WWII aircraft, after whoch the planes were to refuel at the airport. I got to the airport and a B-25 "Hap" and three P-51s flew in. "Hap" had had engine problems and only barely made the fly-by with the friendly aid of a local Navy A&P (airframe and powerplant mechanic). They allowed him to fly the show in the nose bubble and he arrived with a mile-wide, permanent smile on his face. However, I immediately noticed a problem with one of the P-51s. Can anyone spot it?



The inner gear doors on Bald Eagle didn't sag down as the plane sat on the tarmac like they did on Frenesi and the other mustang. They were flown by a group of twenty-somethings dressed in period flight gear, complete with dashing scarves, who were busy mixing it up with the local adoring young ladies. I edged in and privately warned Bald Eagle's pilot of his issue and he shrugged it off. Once they were refueled, our dashing young birdmen mounted their steeds with aplomb, taxied out the mustangs, and took off in a very loud, glorious display of Merlin racket that rattles your chest but never seems to make it onto movie soundtracks. It greatly impressed the local young ladies (and me).

However, something wasn't right. Bald Eagle sucked up his undercart and it didn't suck up. I was near a radio and heard of his woes. He proceeded to skulk out of sight over the horizon where he orbited until the crowd dispersed and then Bald Eagle flitted back down forlornly. The Navy A&P and I took a look and discovered that the bell crank that operated the inner gear doors had sheered and would have to be replaced. Thankfully, an interlock switch had prevented the plane from retracting the wheels into the closed doors, causing further contretemps. It would have taken too long and used up to much AvGas to ferry the Bird back to base in Pennsylvania with its gear down so the young birdman called back to base for the part to be overnighted and began looking for a hotel. I forwent the business of "I told you so" because he knew full-well what he'd missed in the pre-flight walk-around.

When I first arrived in the area in 1981, there was an A-10 Warthog lying on its belly, sans canopy, at the southwest end of runway 5/23 of Norfolk International Airport in plain sight of Interstate 64 which restricts that end of the airport. I never got the story behind that one. However, one morning in 1987 I was to fly out of that airport until a DC-3 got a main mount off the runway and bogged down. It took the firemen five hours to get the bird back on the the runway so it could clear. It was fun to watch them try to figure out how to free the bird without damaging her.

Bob

[Huskyman]

Originally Posted by Kerbie

Ooo... a very bad day at the office. That's a trashed prop and it could have destroyed the engine. Depending on the wingtip damage, it can probably be repaired without too much trouble. It'll need a new nose gear.

Five hundred feet is a pretty good distance off the runway for a small plane. Could you tell if it left the runway early in his rollout or late? If the pilot is learning, he might have negotiated the winds poorly. They can push you off the runway with ease.

Did you see skid marks leaving the runway? Sounds like he must have been at a pretty high speed. If he were landing... probably too high. Not good... he'll be having a chat with the FAA.

It looked like he left the runway not too far from where most of the small planes touch down when coming in. The next day the plane was long gone.

[RP]

Originally Posted by Fogducker

I like these directions for flying;

1. To make houses look smaller----pull back!

2. To make houses look larger----pull back farther!

Fog

I prefer these directions:

If you were born with wings, then fly to your heart's content.

If you weren't, remain on the ground (or close to it)....

[Kerbie]

Originally Posted by Huskyman

It looked like he left the runway not too far from where most of the small planes touch down when coming in. The next day the plane was long gone.

That's not good because it probably means the left the runway with way too much speed. Yeah, the airport would remove the plane pretty quickly to prevent damage to others and further damage to it.

[N4640W]

Question: How can you tell you’re talking to a pilot?:

Answer: He’ll tell you.

[Kerbie]

Haha. N4640W... looks like your N-number. What kind of plane?