Flying_Corporal
New Member
As a flight instructor for a P141 school I was flying with a CP student in a C-172RG in early Dec 2003 (just a few days ago). After a few lazy 8s and chandelles, we decided to do ground reference maneuvers. The student extended flaps and the gear, however only the nose and the left wheels came down, leaving the right gear in the up position. Hmm, I thought, not a big deal, we'll just manually extend it when we go back.
Half-hour later we headed back. We tried to lower the gear yet the same thing happened again. We ran through the emergency checklist several times but without any success. Pumping it or lowering it using electrical pump brought only two wheels down. The right gear trailed behind parallel to the fuselage.
Well, I declared an emergency and headed back to the airport. When we got switched from the approach to the tower, the frequency was eerily quiet for a busy Class D airport around NYC. We were cleared for a direct base and a low approach following my request to visually confirm the state of our gear. The tower reported that the nose and left gear "appeared" to be down, while the right gear was up.
Considering landing on two wheels or on the belly I opted for the latter thinking that even though the prop would get damaged I would still avoid spinning the a/c on the ground. I asked for the second low approach and we rehearsed with my student what each one of us would do.
I placed the gloves between the doors and the fuselage to prevent any jamming. On the base we threw our headsets on the backseat to avoid any injury that they could cause us. On the short final I shutdown the engine, and like agreed, the student promptly turned the master, ignition and fuel to off positions.
Two things happened, one of which I hadn't anticipated. I knew the prop would keep spinning after the engine shutdown, and it did. However, the airspeed started falling very rapidly despite the same glide angle (Thinking about it later, I believe it happened because of the drag of the windmilling prop). To prevent the a/c from stalling, I nosed down, flared over the runway, the plane immediately stalled, then prop hit the ground, screeching, and the a/c came to a full stop wings leveled in what seemed a very short distance . Almost immediately fire fighters swooped in, forcing us to quickly get away from the a/c.
The mechanic later told me that the rod that pushes the gear up and down broke in two because of the metal fatigue.
Interesting thought: one high-time retired pilot later told me that it was possible to swing the a/c in a some kind of a cimb/stall maneuver to force the gear down and lock itself. I know it's possible to "shake" it down in Pipers, but can it be done in the C-172RG?
Half-hour later we headed back. We tried to lower the gear yet the same thing happened again. We ran through the emergency checklist several times but without any success. Pumping it or lowering it using electrical pump brought only two wheels down. The right gear trailed behind parallel to the fuselage.
Well, I declared an emergency and headed back to the airport. When we got switched from the approach to the tower, the frequency was eerily quiet for a busy Class D airport around NYC. We were cleared for a direct base and a low approach following my request to visually confirm the state of our gear. The tower reported that the nose and left gear "appeared" to be down, while the right gear was up.
Considering landing on two wheels or on the belly I opted for the latter thinking that even though the prop would get damaged I would still avoid spinning the a/c on the ground. I asked for the second low approach and we rehearsed with my student what each one of us would do.
I placed the gloves between the doors and the fuselage to prevent any jamming. On the base we threw our headsets on the backseat to avoid any injury that they could cause us. On the short final I shutdown the engine, and like agreed, the student promptly turned the master, ignition and fuel to off positions.
Two things happened, one of which I hadn't anticipated. I knew the prop would keep spinning after the engine shutdown, and it did. However, the airspeed started falling very rapidly despite the same glide angle (Thinking about it later, I believe it happened because of the drag of the windmilling prop). To prevent the a/c from stalling, I nosed down, flared over the runway, the plane immediately stalled, then prop hit the ground, screeching, and the a/c came to a full stop wings leveled in what seemed a very short distance . Almost immediately fire fighters swooped in, forcing us to quickly get away from the a/c.
The mechanic later told me that the rod that pushes the gear up and down broke in two because of the metal fatigue.
Interesting thought: one high-time retired pilot later told me that it was possible to swing the a/c in a some kind of a cimb/stall maneuver to force the gear down and lock itself. I know it's possible to "shake" it down in Pipers, but can it be done in the C-172RG?