Sanford, NC – A pilot and his dog had to made an emergency landing at a regional airport in Sanford, North Carolina after the landing gear failed.
Clint Bryan, the pilot, said he was flying to New Bern when he realized there was a problem with the landing gear of his single-engine Cessna 210, so he turned around and headed back to the Sanford-Lee County Regional Airport.
A veteran pilot, Bryan said he circled the airport for about three hours to burn off most of his fuel before attempting a landing shortly before noon.
He carefully guided the aircraft in and skidded on its belly along the runway. After the plane stopped, the door popped open, and Ripley, the dog, bounded out and ran around the aircraft followed by Bryan.
Investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration arrived at the airport Thursday afternoon to begin their review of the incident.
from the looks of the video he never cut the engine before landing and ruined the prop. Why didn’t he pull the mixture, feather (if possible), and put the prop horizontal to the ground. Would’ve saved a lot of cash.
Guess he didn’t think of it at the time. “If you think, you’re dead!”
What are the chances of cutting the engine and having the prop stop at the horizontal position (or close to it)? He might have to stop and restart the engine 3 or 4 times… That’s a lot of concentration diverted from “flying the plane”. And that’s IF he had a 2-blade prop. The 210 has a 3-blade prop.
But you’re right in that the damage caused by a spinning prop suddenly stopped is bound to cost a lot more to repair than one that is simply bent back and dragged.
Agree, and to be honest, on my emergency landing, I just kept the thought “Fly the plane”, all I am doing is delivering the plane to the insurance company, just let me be there to collect the check…
As it turned out, the only check written was to the A&P for the replaced cylinder and associated maintenance.
For the commercial checkride the examiner expects you to simulate a feather “no pitch” prop setup for the engine out so I consider it an essential part of the checklist. Featuring greatly increases glide distance so its usually worth the extra seconds…Not to mention the fuel should be cut. Metal on concrete can rupture and spark a tank. (Although I do realize this is mitigated by the fact it is a high wing.)
When in glide distance I would’ve cut the mixture, feather, and (if time permits) shut off fuel.
I’m only being so excessively critical because he had HOURS to prepare for the landing while burning off fuel, and yet he came blazing in with the engine running… IMHO that is poor piloting.
But in the end, he walked away, which is the important factor.
A checklist is no substitute for common sense or intuition. Even if it isn’t in the checklist I would still cut the fuel before scraping the pavement. Although I’d be surprised if the POH didn’t suggest cutting the fuel.
In fact, most POHs contain a similar phraseology of “These checklists are supplimental to emergency training and pilot judegement.” I don’t have the POH for the Arrow (as I’m studying abroad for the sem and don’t have my flying junk w/ me) but I remember seeing it in there.
I guess I’m just finding it extremely ironic that someone who the article describes as a “veteran pilot” and has 3 hours to prepare didn’t execute it with more thought to the details.
Could very well be, won’t argue that, but I’m a checklist kinda person, I will follow it to the T expecting that experience behind me refined that checklist for my safety.
If it doesn’t say pull mixture, I probably wouldn’t.
BTW, my Sundowner does NOT assume partial failure. It begins If no restart do the usual… establish glide, throttle close, fuel selector off, mixture cutoff, magneto off, battery off, alt off. fuel boost off, unlatch door.
Probably the most important step is the last one. Does no good to crash and have a bent airframe and unable to open a door should the flames go a’licking.
As you can see, quite a few steps to remember, and even though I had about 15 minutes “to think about it” when I had an in flight cylinder failure, in an emergency, it’s not just that simple to pull the list out and follow it to the T. You just fly it as far as you can into the crash. I declared the emergency on 121.5, squawked 7700 and started troubleshooting from memory and FLY the plane since I didn’t even think I was going to make it to the airport.
Vibration, thought the plane was going to shake itself to death… Instruments quite hard to read.
Bottom line for me, was the words that stuck in my head from my instructor. Fly the plane.
Something to consider is the fact that you’re going to be exceeding your insurance deductible anyway, so why do anything out of the ordinary just to “try” to save the engine. What you end up with is a mid time engine on a newly repaired a/c. Put a 0 SMOH engine on the plane and it’s value goes up with out hurting your pocket book (any more than the damage has already done).
I was taught to shut off the fuel, which only shuts it off at the firewall, so it’s not isolated to the wings anyway. I never taught my students to shut down a perfectly good engine, you just removed the very last piece of normalcy to this landing. More importantly would be shutting down the electrical system and opening the doors so they don’t jam shut in the event of a rougher than planned “crash.”
Wow, reading comprehension is not a strong point here…I realize MOST piston singles cannot be feathered, but some can. This is why I said “feather (if possible)” Additionally, … subsequent to my first post I realized the 210 has a 3-blade prop, as that was explained.
Airing an opinion here is like presenting the magna carta to the pope.
I will carry that question farther. Help me think of ANY piston single
engine aircraft that can feather it prop. There may be one but I cannot think of it.
Even if it can’t be feathered (no pitch) going as “low pitch” as possible would drastically reduce drag and increase gliding distance. That’s the overall idea here.
I still don’t see what the BIG problem is. Just cut the mixture on final within glide distance and stop the prop to minimize damage…It’s not some complex, time consuming maneuver. Any competent pilot should be able to do that with no problem… Especially when he had three hours to think things through.
Just cut the mixture on final within glide distance and stop the prop to minimize damage…It’s not some complex, time consuming maneuver. Any competent pilot should be able to do that with no problem… Especially when he had three hours to think things through.