six gear collapses & gear ups in one week

[philiplane]

The Aztec population is mostly used in commercial operations, so the flight hours will be higher than the average owner-flown Mooney, or Piper Comanche.

Meaning that #1, the hydraulic gear design of the Aztec is stronger, and more reliable, and is flown more often by commercial pilots.

#2, the owner flown Mooney/PA24/Beech Bonanza fleet has lower average flight hours, all of these planes have an electro-mechanical gear that is more fragile and dependent upon superior maintenance to be trust worthy, and this fleet is flown by casual fliers who may not always be at the top of their game.

[philiplane]

An Mooney M20E gear collapsed while taxiing in Modesto, CA on the 29th. 

[kortopates]

Its was such a good week with none - until yesterday a Eagle did an unusual gear up:

AIRCRAFT APPEARED TO LOSE POWER DURING GO AROUND AND SETTLED BACK ONTO RUNWAY GEAR UP, COLORADO SPRINGS, CO.

But no injuries among 2 people
 

[MooneyMitch]

12 minutes ago, kortopates said:

Its was such a good week with none - until yesterday a Eagle did an unusual gear up:

AIRCRAFT APPEARED TO LOSE POWER DURING GO AROUND AND SETTLED BACK ONTO RUNWAY GEAR UP, COLORADO SPRINGS, CO.

But no injuries among 2 people
 

I’m sorry for these folks and fortunately no injuries, only financial discomfort.

But maybe this is fodder for continued discussions/opinions on possibly leaving the gear out a bit longer on departures ( in certain situations).

[ArtVandelay]

I’m sorry for these folks and fortunately no injuries, only financial discomfort.
But maybe this is fodder for continued discussions/opinions on possibly leaving the gear out a bit longer on departures ( in certain situations).

Could have been intentional if running out of runway. Do you run into a fence or belly land it?

[larrynimmo]

A belly landing has to be one of the choices in your tool bag....if you are making an emergency landing, it is a way to quickly and relatively safely to dissipate energy.   If landing in water...gear up.    When landing in a field with crops...gear up...short field unimproved surfaces gear up.  Owners of fixed gear planes don’t have the option of gear up landings.

landing gear down saves the plane and pilot from damage where it can touch down and stop without impact...any impact at speed will greatly increase the chance of a fatal accident.

regardless of you choice in an emergency situation, the most important thing is to fly the plane to the ground...so many emergencies end with spin/spirals where the plane becomes a projectile rather than an airplane/glider.

[Ibra]

15 minutes ago, larrynimmo said:

A belly landing has to be one of the choices in your tool bag....if you are making an emergency landing, it is a way to quickly and relatively safely to dissipate energy.   If landing in water...gear up.    When landing in a field with crops...gear up...short field unimproved surfaces gear up.  Owners of fixed gear planes don’t have the option of gear up landings.

I was told to NEVER raise gear with remaining runway, that advice did not stand the test of practicing engine failures after takeoff at my short 1800ft airfield, other people experiences may vary on this, but for me by the time I liftoff 1/ bellow 200ft-ish there is not much remaining runway to stop with gear down unless I land on belly with gear up 2/ above 200ft-ish I may need gear up to make next field ahead safely on 90kts glide and 3/ I need 2000agl with gear down vs 1300agl with gear up to make 360 back to the runway

I don't plan 180 back to the runway, gear up/down does not matter, landing in short runways with +10kts tailwind is poor airmanship and unsafe (I do it for fun on one-way ILS runways that are 9000ft long) and honestly, the crop fields ahead are far wider and clear of obstructions than my own home airfield which seems to needs accurate speed & power adjustments 

So yes regardless of the gear config choice, one just need fly aircraft in the air to the ground wing level into wind on slow ground speed, it does not have to be hard runway, or on wheels or breaks or even clear of obstructions, even ugly as it seems one should will walk away from that, trying to tight manoeuvre or re-config to make that forced landing beautiful (e.g. gear down and tight turns back to hard surfaces) may have opposite consequences if one is tight on speed, height, length and judgement

I know someone who forgot to drop the gear down after an EFATO, it seems that saved his show as he only had 100ft remaining runway when the engine quit at 200ft with 80kts...

[MooneyMitch]

Plane lands without landing gear at Camarillo Airport

VENTURA, Calif. -- Ventura County Fire responded to reports of a plane down at the Camarillo airport Thursday afternoon. 

The call went out around 2:56 p.m.

Upon arriving at the airport, firefighters found a plane that had landed on its belly but was still fully intact.Officials said there were three people on board the plane when it crashed. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.

During their investigation, fire officials discovered that the plane's landing gear had malfunctioned causing the gear to remain in the up position while the plane made contact with the ground.

[ArtVandelay]

Plane lands without landing gear at Camarillo Airport

VENTURA, Calif. -- Ventura County Fire responded to reports of a plane down at the Camarillo airport Thursday afternoon. 

The call went out around 2:56 p.m.

Upon arriving at the airport, firefighters found a plane that had landed on its belly but was still fully intact.Officials said there were three people on board the plane when it crashed. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.

During their investigation, fire officials discovered that the plane's landing gear had malfunctioned causing the gear to remain in the up position while the plane made contact with the ground.

I guess it’s a slow day for the Ventura Co Fire department.

[MooneyMitch]

8 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

I guess it’s a slow day for the Ventura Co Fire department.

It is inspirational that the photo appears to reflect a proper method of lifting the aircraft without potential further damage to the airframe....... possibly hoisting from engine mount/hook and placing jacks under wings, then discovering/lowering/securing  gear.

This method does require personnel on each wing tip to help stabilize the aircraft during the hoisting.

[cliffy]

So with all the gear up accidents we have recorded right here on this tread WHY do we have all the histrionics and hype when a gear up landing is contemplated and the news media is involved? "DEATH IS IMMINENT-PLANE HAS TO LAND WITHOUT LANDING GEAR!"

Additionally- As  far as I know/remember there has never been a passenger ever injured even in a Boeing jet (any Boeing) that had to or did land gear partially or fully gear up.

If you are under control at touch down you're probably going to walk away  from the "accident" site talking on your cell phone

[MooneyMitch]

47 minutes ago, cliffy said:

So with all the gear up accidents we have recorded right here on this tread WHY do we have all the histrionics and hype when a gear up landing is contemplated and the news media is involved? "DEATH IS IMMINENT-PLANE HAS TO LAND WITHOUT LANDING GEAR!"

Additionally- As  far as I know/remember there has never been a passenger ever injured even in a Boeing jet (any Boeing) that had to or did land gear partially or fully gear up.

If you are under control at touch down you're probably going to walk away  from the "accident" site talking on your cell phone

With my experience of attempting to promote general aviation, I found it traditional for media to be mostly unfriendly towards general aviation, thereby casting fear into the average unknowing public.  We [the public] probably get easily drawn to what appears to be an OMG story, rather than a milk toast daily fender bender occurrence.  Fear and sensationalism sells !!!

With this Camarillo incident, media presents this rather than expose all the 4 wheeled fender benders that more than likely occurred within the greater Camarillo area yesterday.  Ho hum, nothing to see her folks, move along....................

Additionally, I've always maintained that our alpha bet aviation groups are really terrific at promoting general aviation within our aviation community, but not very good at promoting the positive aspects of general aviation to the public. I guess that's our job............off of soap box (for now.. LOL )

[bonal]

Inconsistent terminology first it landed then it crashed. Typical 

[larrynimmo]

Airplanes and space travel is always news worthy.  Less than 0.25% of the population is involved in either adventure...since it involves science and the lore that dreams are made of make this newsworthy for most people.

[philiplane]

N15LG. an M20E, landed long and went off the end of the runway, St Johns Arizona 8-10-20. 

The short runway is 3400 feet, the long, calm wind runway is 5300 feet. Report does not say what runway was over run. Either one is plenty long for a Mooney M20E.

[gsxrpilot]

12 minutes ago, philiplane said:

N15LG. an M20E, landed long and went off the end of the runway, St Johns Arizona 8-10-20. 

The short runway is 3400 feet, the long, calm wind runway is 5300 feet. Report does not say what runway was over run. Either one is plenty long for a Mooney M20E.

That's a regular fuel stop for me when I was flying between San Fran and Austin. It's a beautiful runway with plenty of room for any Mooney including my 252.

[cliffy]

Usually always cheap fuel there

Was there once during voting for city council and there were about 2 dozen running for 1 seat. Asked why and was told that one stint as a City Councilman gave you health insurance for life!  No wonder everyone wanted to be elected there. 

[ArtVandelay]

That's a regular fuel stop for me when I was flying between San Fran and Austin. It's a beautiful runway with plenty of room for any Mooney including my 252.

But no AP service, no hotels for 25 miles...if you have a problem, you’ll be stranded.

[gsxrpilot]

2 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

But no AP service, no hotels for 25 miles...if you have a problem, you’ll be stranded.

Lot's of Mooney friends on speed dial and the MooneySpace map bookmarked on my phone. Make a phone call, get picked up, sort it out the next day.

#notworried

[cliffy]

I stayed in a hotel in that town once. 

[Hank]

5 minutes ago, cliffy said:

I stayed in a hotel in that town once. 

But was it a Holiday Inn Express???  

[cliffy]

8 hours ago, Hank said:

But was it a Holiday Inn Express???  

No but they kept the lights on for me  :-)

[mike_elliott]

20 hours ago, gsxrpilot said:

Lot's of Mooney friends on speed dial and the MooneySpace map bookmarked on my phone. Make a phone call, get picked up, sort it out the next day.

#notworried

and while your there, run for city council

[philiplane]

It's been five days since the last incident. I was beginning to think we'd already run out of Mooneys to gear up. But one did gear up, in a Bellville Ohio cornfield on the 13th.

There are 139 days left in 2020. At the current rate, we should see 30 more gear incidents by the end of the year. One every four to five days. 

Edited August 15, 2020 by philiplane

[mike_elliott]

11 minutes ago, philiplane said:

It's been five days since the last incident. I was beginning to think we'd already run out of Mooneys to gear up. But one did gear up, in a Bellville Ohio cornfield on the 13th.

There are 139 days left in 2020. At the current rate, we should see 30 more gear incidents by the end of the year. One every four to five days. 

Good for him, to land in a cornfield with the gear down would have been problematic for his health insurance company