KVNC
Florida Man
So I had an interesting evening at the airport tonight when my student and I had to return to the ramp due to an inbound emergency involving a Westwind. Apparently on departure from Belize the a/c lost the tire and/or wheel assembly on the left main. The crew was advised of this and decided to return to base here at SRQ. Upon arrival and a low pass, the tower confirmed the missing components. After burning fuel over the gulf, the a/c landed and departed the left side of the runway on rollout at moderate to slow speed. No injuries.
My question for the jet guys is in a scenario such as this when there is a main gear issue is there ever consideration for landing gear up? My concern would be loss of directional control at a high rate of speed when the wingtip/gear strut impacts the runway. It's assumed the a/c is going to be damaged either way, so is it possible more control might be retained just flairing it out nicely gear up?
Either way, good job to the crew for getting her down and stopped in one piece and getting out safe. I'm just trying to get some thoughts on general opinions on best handling in a scenario like this.
My question for the jet guys is in a scenario such as this when there is a main gear issue is there ever consideration for landing gear up? My concern would be loss of directional control at a high rate of speed when the wingtip/gear strut impacts the runway. It's assumed the a/c is going to be damaged either way, so is it possible more control might be retained just flairing it out nicely gear up?
Either way, good job to the crew for getting her down and stopped in one piece and getting out safe. I'm just trying to get some thoughts on general opinions on best handling in a scenario like this.