lazy 8's and a king air

[triple7]

lazy 8\'s and a king air

Went out today with my instructor to fly some lazy 8's and 8's on pylons. We were holding short ready for takeoff and a king air on final announced to tower they would be going around due to a unsafe gear indication on the left main. tower cleared the airspace and cleared them for a low approach/flyby to check the gear. They were down, but they opted to say aloft and trouble shoot. We sat there waiting to see what would happen. Meanwhile my instructor and I wondered what they were thinking....must be a quick way to ruin a day. We were cleared for takeoff and departed before the king air returned. But when wegot back it was parked outside so all apparently went well. the pilot stated that he was going to pump the gear and see what happened. Anyone know what failsafes the king air b-200 has for stuff like that? anyone experienced this problem? made for a little excitement around otherwise dull manassas.

 

[FL270]

Re: lazy 8\'s and a king air

Most older King Air 200s have a mechanical (electric) landing gear system. The latest model B200s have a hydraulic gear system. Since I've never flown they hydraulic, I can't speak to it. However, on the mechanical, you have a dual-wound electric motor which drives the main gear up and down, and it is connected via a bicycle-style chain to the nose gear to raise and lower it. In the event the system fails to extend all three gear, you have (as on all retractable-gear aircraft) and alternate means of extending the gear ... in this case, a hand pump. You pull and turn a small lever, which disconnects the electrical motor, then you pump a hand pump located under the captain's right knee about fifty times to manually lower the gear.

If I had a gear malfunction (knock on wood, I've been lucky so far) I would probably do exactly what this crew did ... do a flyby for a visual check on gear status, depart the pattern and take the necessary time to troubleshoot, determine the best course of action, and return for landing. Since the airplane here landed safely, the crew must have done well.

Good question!

FL270

 

[jonnyb]

Re: lazy 8\'s and a king air

I actually had a similar experience in King Air 200. I put the gear down and got two green. The nose and the left main. I did the same thing the guys in your story did. I made a low approach and MRY tower informed me all three sets of wheels appeared down. I then pumped the gear and received three green. I landed and everything was fine. The only thing that was a little unsettleing was the airplane I was flying had the right main colapse on a previous occasion. The right main colapsed with 3 green indications so I was a little nervous at touchdown. Everything worked out fine though.

 

[SteveC]

Re: lazy 8\'s and a king air

I've never quite understood the idea of doing a fly-by to have the tower visually check the gear. If the tower sees a problem, what are you going to do differently than you were before? And if they don't see anything wrong, aren't you still going to do the emergency extension procedure to try to get *3 green* anyway?

I'm certainly not knocking you, or anyone else that chooses to do a fly-by, I'm just not sure I see the usefulness.

I'm open to comments or corrections.

 

[FL270]

Re: lazy 8\'s and a king air

Steve, of course you're still going to do the procedure, as you should. However, the visual check gives you some indication of whether you're dealing with an indication problem or a more serious malfunction. It's one more piece of information to process when making a decision, and the more information you have to make that decision, the better off you are.

FL270

 

[jonnyb]

Re: lazy 8\'s and a king air

Well put 27OH

 

[Mr_Creepy]

Re: lazy 8\'s and a king air

Yeah you do a fly by - and what do they ALWAYS say? "They appear to be down and locked."

In the kingairs you have a bunch of procedures to verify the gear down and locked, short cut mnemonic is breaker, breaker, horn, horn, light, light.

50 pts to who can assign the procedure to the mnemonic.