Gear malfunction in the Seneca last night.........

[chperplt]

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What the hell is 20 gallons supposed to mean to the tower????? Always give fuels in minutes, or hours/minutes.


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20 gallons would give the tower guy an idea how big a fire he may have on his hands. 1 hour and 10 minutes tells him nothing. He isn't interested in how long you can stay in the air..That's not why he's asking the question.

 

[EatSleepFly]

Well, there is a reason that the AIM says when declaring an emergency, fuel should be stated in minutes (or hours and minutes, if appropriate). (AIM 6-3-2)

I disagree with the fact that they need to know "how big the fire is going to be", because I'd dare bet that they plan for a worst-case scenario in that regard. It wouldn't make sense for them to say, "gee, lets only roll 3 trucks instead of all 6, because tower says he only has 30 gallons of fuel on board."

Besides that, theres lots of emergencies that can happen that won't necessarily result in a fire and ATC will still ask that question. I'm just speculating here, but I would guess that they want to know the amount of fuel in terms of time for traffic management purposes. If the airplane has a lot of fuel, then they may stay up longer to troubleshoot the problem in which case, ATC has more time to get the airspace clear- if not, they will be making an immediate return to the airport requiring ATC to clear the airspace quicker. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[MikeD]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
What the hell is 20 gallons supposed to mean to the tower????? Always give fuels in minutes, or hours/minutes.


[/ QUOTE ]

20 gallons would give the tower guy an idea how big a fire he may have on his hands. 1 hour and 10 minutes tells him nothing. He isn't interested in how long you can stay in the air..That's not why he's asking the question.

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Wanna bet? Tower couldn't give a rats ass how big a fire is going to be and really doesn't care. He needs fuel in minutes or hours/minutes in order to know how long he has to get his act together: recover aircraft, divert aircraft; how many planes can he get in before he's got to start working the hole for you to recover; how long before he loses a runway to you (at a single runway airport, how long til the airport effectively closes following your recovery)? etc. Think about it. I can tell you as both a pilot, and CFR firefighter, that tower isn't firefighters, and doesn't get in the fire chief' chili, not ATC, not airport ops, not airport police, NOBODY. Tower doesn't determine how many trucks respond, that's the ARFF crew's SOP. In fact, another tidbit for you all, did you know that in an emergency, the fire chief is in charge once the aircraft lands? You may want to, say, exit the runway, but if the fire chief wants you to stop on the runway, then THAT'S what you do, period. You may want to cancel the IFE, but it'll be at the fire chief's consent; if he wishes to check you over before allowing the IFE to be cancelled, that's his call too.

!+10 in fuel tells ATC a hell of a lot, and that IS why he's asking the question. Where'd you get the info from anyway? Check the AIM.

How big the fire is going to be? You've got me LOL!

 

[ready2fly]

Nicely done, Alchemy!

 

[pilot602]

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Anyone else had similiar landing gear problems in piper aircraft? Any idea what could've gone wrong with the gear? The mechanic hasn't taken a look yet. I inspected the landing gear during the preflight and everything looked ok. I wonder what would cause just the left main to fail to extend.....


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Yes. Luckily I've always had three green when I cycled them down.

If I had to guess I would imagine it was an airbubble or two that had worked its way into the system. They'll end up in the gear cylinders and essentially "lock" the cylinder.

 

[Alchemy]

I heard from the mechanic today.....

Apparantly the Gear Motor is shot. He mentioned to me that the gear motor works a lot like an alternator and that the brushes on the motor were worn to bare metal. He couldn't get the gear to go up or down when he put the plane on jacks.

Thanks for all the kind words from everyone. All in all it was good to see that the emergency procedures worked like they're supposed to.