Wow !!!
Should he still be flying at that age ?
http://www.wsvn.com/story/28885459/pilot-takes-off-without-use-of-landing-gear
http://www.wsvn.com/story/28885459/pilot-takes-off-without-use-of-landing-gear
Pilot does touch and go without landing gear
- Thread starter Mr Nice
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85 year old pilot? Hmmm...not so sure I like that.
His actions and description make zero sense..."coming down too fast"...so..."he raised the landing gear"...
[censored]???
[censored]???
The idiot damages his props/crash lands AND THEN DECIDES TO FLY AN ADDITIONAL 100 MILES to a different airport. WHAT A FREAKING IDIOT!! Should have let it come to a rest on the ground or at worst done a go around and landed.
Depends on the person my grandma did ok till 86 when she gave it up for health reasons..
I see even younger people plowing into cars in parking lots frequently.(mid 70's I estimate)
Its important to know your own limits and not be a hazard but who wants to realize they just dont have it anymore?
I see even younger people plowing into cars in parking lots frequently.(mid 70's I estimate)
Its important to know your own limits and not be a hazard but who wants to realize they just dont have it anymore?
When I die, I want to go quietly in my sleep like my 86 year old grandpa, not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his plane.
Originally Posted By: Astro14
His actions and description make zero sense..."coming down too fast"...so..."he raised the landing gear"...
[censored]???
He planned to do a go-around, and standard procedure is to suck the gear back up and gain speed. But in some aircraft, retracting the gear causes a brief increase in drag when all the doors open before the gear come up. He waited just a little to late to pull the gear and start climbing... It was a sequence of mistakes, no doubt, but once he'd committed to a go-around, trying to change to a belly landing midway through it would have probably killed him when he shot off the end of the runway.
Beautiful old Aerostar, too. Always loved those, and the mid-wing layout certainly made it possible for him to survive that one.
His actions and description make zero sense..."coming down too fast"...so..."he raised the landing gear"...
[censored]???
He planned to do a go-around, and standard procedure is to suck the gear back up and gain speed. But in some aircraft, retracting the gear causes a brief increase in drag when all the doors open before the gear come up. He waited just a little to late to pull the gear and start climbing... It was a sequence of mistakes, no doubt, but once he'd committed to a go-around, trying to change to a belly landing midway through it would have probably killed him when he shot off the end of the runway.
Beautiful old Aerostar, too. Always loved those, and the mid-wing layout certainly made it possible for him to survive that one.
He was flying a "hot-rod". He went to an alternate airport with the the ability to deal with a crash landing and one with the facilities to handle the repairs. I'd say he did well after the initial mistake.
He's flying a twin engine plane so that's a bit more complex than a single engine plane. I don't think it's that bad, just maybe his reaction time and judgement might be a little off now due to age so that's probably why he's retiring from flying. Plus once you crash a plane, I think it's quite involved in trying to get it certified for flight worthiness again so that's probably why he's selling off the parts.
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
just maybe his reaction time and judgement might be a little off now due to age so that's probably why he's retiring from flying.
I bet he had a "pointed" discussion with an FAA official and the choice may not have been up to him.
just maybe his reaction time and judgement might be a little off now due to age so that's probably why he's retiring from flying.
I bet he had a "pointed" discussion with an FAA official and the choice may not have been up to him.
Luckily him and his dog didn't die in a ball of fire.
Poor decision to fly 100 miles after the damage to aircraft.
Did he have enough runway left to abort the go around ?
Poor decision to fly 100 miles after the damage to aircraft.
Did he have enough runway left to abort the go around ?
What's curious to me is his gear is already up (and gear doors closed) when he seems to stabilize about five feet above the runway. I'm not quite sure why he lost that altitude at the very end, unless there's some aerodynamic anamoly that sucks the plane to the ground when it's already very close (sort of like a side draft in racing).
there is... boats can have the same thing when going through shallow water and has caused ferries to sink.
The air under the plane needs to speed up which causes lower air pressure (and less lift)
The air under the plane needs to speed up which causes lower air pressure (and less lift)
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: Astro14
His actions and description make zero sense..."coming down too fast"...so..."he raised the landing gear"...
[censored]???
He planned to do a go-around, and standard procedure is to suck the gear back up and gain speed. But in some aircraft, retracting the gear causes a brief increase in drag when all the doors open before the gear come up. He waited just a little to late to pull the gear and start climbing... It was a sequence of mistakes, no doubt, but once he'd committed to a go-around, trying to change to a belly landing midway through it would have probably killed him when he shot off the end of the runway.
Beautiful old Aerostar, too. Always loved those, and the mid-wing layout certainly made it possible for him to survive that one.
His actions still make no sense. Sucking the gear back up might be the first part of a go-around in this airplane (but it is not part of the go-around in the roughly 30 airplanes that I've flown...), but there comes a point in any approach in which it is TOO LATE to retract the gear.
At that point, you simply have to do a touch and go, or a full stop landing. Poor judgement in failing to recognize that point in the approach.
If he was "too fast" to do the full stop, and he was "coming down too fast", then adding full power while maintaining AOA/airspeed would have arrested his rate of descent far faster than raising the gear, which, like many airplanes, causes a drag increase, a trim change, and then a drag decrease.
Looks to me like he simply stopped flying it while he was raising the gear. The airplane continued to sink, and the pitch was unchanged, then it pitched slightly down (that trim change, perhaps) and settled onto the runway.
By deciding too late to abort the approach, and then fumbling through the very basics of flying, (power, pitch, trim) he wrecked his own airplane. He wrecked a perfectly good airplane.
Originally Posted By: Astro14
His actions and description make zero sense..."coming down too fast"...so..."he raised the landing gear"...
[censored]???
He planned to do a go-around, and standard procedure is to suck the gear back up and gain speed. But in some aircraft, retracting the gear causes a brief increase in drag when all the doors open before the gear come up. He waited just a little to late to pull the gear and start climbing... It was a sequence of mistakes, no doubt, but once he'd committed to a go-around, trying to change to a belly landing midway through it would have probably killed him when he shot off the end of the runway.
Beautiful old Aerostar, too. Always loved those, and the mid-wing layout certainly made it possible for him to survive that one.
His actions still make no sense. Sucking the gear back up might be the first part of a go-around in this airplane (but it is not part of the go-around in the roughly 30 airplanes that I've flown...), but there comes a point in any approach in which it is TOO LATE to retract the gear.
At that point, you simply have to do a touch and go, or a full stop landing. Poor judgement in failing to recognize that point in the approach.
If he was "too fast" to do the full stop, and he was "coming down too fast", then adding full power while maintaining AOA/airspeed would have arrested his rate of descent far faster than raising the gear, which, like many airplanes, causes a drag increase, a trim change, and then a drag decrease.
Looks to me like he simply stopped flying it while he was raising the gear. The airplane continued to sink, and the pitch was unchanged, then it pitched slightly down (that trim change, perhaps) and settled onto the runway.
By deciding too late to abort the approach, and then fumbling through the very basics of flying, (power, pitch, trim) he wrecked his own airplane. He wrecked a perfectly good airplane.
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