Qantas grounds five Q400s over landing gear problems

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Qantas grounds five Q400s over landing gear problems

By Geoffrey Thomas | August 24, 2010

Qantas has grounded five of its Q400s, citing problems with the landing gear. The airline inspected its 21 Q400s after Flybe raised concerns about undercarriage fittings on its fleet of Q400s, a Qantas spokesperson said.

"We have picked up some issues on five aircraft and that has required us to take them out of service," he said in a statement. The aircraft are operated by subsidiary QantasLink.

He said the issue does not affect "immediate flight safety" but the airline is taking a "conservative and safety-first approach" and will replace "a main landing gear fitting component" on each aircraft before returning them to service. It is allowing 3-4 weeks to complete the work.

Bombardier has had previous problems with Q400 landing gear: SAS retired its fleet of 27 in 2007 following three incidents involving faulty landing gear (ATW Daily News, Oct. 30, 2007).
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Is this a corrosion problem like the SAS airplanes? If I am not mistaken the gear problems there resulted from improperly conducted post-cleaning lubrication procedures.
 
86% of all Q400's need to be grounded

86% of all Q400's need to be grounded for inspection...

About 86% of the Bombardier Q400 world fleet needs to be temporarily grounded for inspections due to a potential problem with a component near the landing gear.


“A detailed visual inspection and conductivity test is requested on approximately 222 Q400s,” says a Bombardier spokesman. Ascend Online fleet data shows there are 258 Q400s in the world.


The Bombardier spokesman says the aircraft-maker has issued a service bulletin to Q400 operators.
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Re: 86% of all Q400's need to be grounded

TUCKnTRUCK said:
Honestly, have you seen how the Q400 lands? I'm supprised we don't have bent wing spars from the landings.
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For reals yo...the Q400 will humble you quickly...I've had my fair share of "arrivals".

Good thing that Horizon is staking it's future on the Q400, since it has such a high reliability and never has emergency AD's or inspections on it...
 
Re: 86% of all Q400's need to be grounded

The Q400 certainly does have plenty of awful landings. However, I don't know if that's the plane so much as the people that fly it. IMO it doesn't really take very long to figure out what tendencies it has on landing. I'm no aviation god but I can consistently get at least decent landings from it. I do find that generally the Q does fly like absolute dogpoop though.

Now that I've said all this I have probably doomed myself to a month of adjusting field elevation. :D
 
Re: 86% of all Q400's need to be grounded

Oooh hey I'm Old Skool now on the site. Only took a bit over 5 years...
 
Re: 86% of all Q400's need to be grounded

Rocketman99 said:
The Q400 certainly does have plenty of awful landings. However, I don't know if that's the plane so much as the people that fly it. IMO it doesn't really take very long to figure out what tendencies it has on landing. I'm no aviation god but I can consistently get at least decent landings from it. I do find that generally the Q does fly like absolute dogpoop though.

Now that I've said all this I have probably doomed myself to a month of adjusting field elevation. :D
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I'll agree that some places I could consistently get really good landings in the Q400...PDX, SEA, LAX, EUG, BOI...places that didn't have geographical influences on the runway.

Some places like Santa Rosa (STS) at 5115ft, Sun Valley, Pullman, Lewiston, Helena, Reno, Arcata...etc...the places that either had short runways, so you couldn't really try to work a squeaker or places where you constantly had gusty winds/nasty weather...those would work you over.

Q400 though is an airplane that you must land with power...you pull it off in the flare and you're going for a ride.
 
Dash 8 = stiff legs :p In this case, legs with "hairline fracture" for Q400

After 3 years flying the mighty Dash 8-100/300, here is my theory of "how did you get grease landing for dash 8"

1. snowy or wet runways
2. You are high on something, please let us know what you are taking.
3. You are just lucky
 
adreamer said:
Dash 8 = stiff legs :p In this case, legs with "hairline fracture" for Q400

After 3 years flying the mighty Dash 8-100/300, here is my theory of "how did you get grease landing for dash 8"

1. snowy or wet runways
2. You are high on something, please let us know what you are taking.
3. You are just lucky
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There is a secret of how to get a good landing in the Dash-8.... the only thing is that nobody knows what it is.
 
Re: 86% of all Q400's need to be grounded

SurferLucas said:
I'll agree that some places I could consistently get really good landings in the Q400...PDX, SEA, LAX, EUG, BOI...places that didn't have geographical influences on the runway.

Some places like Santa Rosa (STS) at 5115ft, Sun Valley, Pullman, Lewiston, Helena, Reno, Arcata...etc...the places that either had short runways, so you couldn't really try to work a squeaker or places where you constantly had gusty winds/nasty weather...those would work you over.

Q400 though is an airplane that you must land with power...you pull it off in the flare and you're going for a ride.
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Pullman landings always tend to crack me up. Then again I can never make a smooth landing in a C172 at that airport.
 
Re: 86% of all Q400's need to be grounded

Wet runway is nearly guaranteed as far as a nice landing is concerned...it loves wet runways.

After a few years I can be mostly assured of not crushing it on....thats about it.
 
TBH, at this point I think most of our pilots have it figured out about 90% of the way... every once in a while we still manage to dent a runway. .. :)

Now with all the new hires coming.. I may start bringing an extra seat cushion again!
 
Hey rocketmann.... I just wanted to let you know that you are one of the biggest toolbags at colgan. A lot of people hate you. just sayyin:cool:
 
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