Kestrel452
New Member
If you are forced to land in a field, should the gear be up or down? What if it is really soggy/muddy?
Small plane, engine dead
- Thread starter Kestrel452
- Start date
Gear up will highly lessen the chances of you bogging down and flipping over, especially if soggy/muddy.
R
Roger, Roger
Guest
Up. Don't want to flip. If the surface looks reasonably hard (dirt road, paved road, drag strip), gear down. Also flaps down to minimize landing speed.
What about fixed gear?
I always hate looking down and seeing nothing but trees and fields that clearly have standing water in them.
If plowed, land with the rows....otherwise, good luck.
RPM
Well-Known Member
What about fixed gear?
I always hate looking down and seeing nothing but trees and fields that clearly have standing water in them.
"most" fixed gear planes have a very low stall speed.. get as close to it as possible before impact.. 35kts into a tree or swamp shouldn't kill ya..
What about fixed gear?
Break out the emergency arc welder.
R
Roger, Roger
Guest
I keep mine in my flight bag.
All gear up. Lessen the chance of ground looping.
RPM
Well-Known Member
i'd land with whatever gear you have if its a hard surface in a slower airplane.. you can balance it on one wheel til your just about stopped.. if your careful.
Seen an uneventful 2 wheel landing in duchess in person.. and seen videos of others on just the nosewheel or just 1 main.. they just balanced on the wheel for as long as possible..
but.. I fly a pitts and land on one wheel all the time for fun.. so..
In the Embraer though.. Two mains.. definitely down. Any thing other than that Id probably put em up.. I think thats what the manual says as well..
Here is a pic of one of our jets in Boston.. pilots had a 3 green down indication, shortly before touchdown got a "landing lever disagree" warning, they said they thought gear was down and continued, can't remember all the details of exactly why they continued.. but anyway for whatever reason they continued the approach.. note the gear doors open, felt the sink more than normal at touchdown, realized gear was NOT down.. MAX thrust.. airplane dragged the flaps then took off again, got the gear down manually, landed safely without incident.. VERY, VERY lucky on that one. Only damage was on the flaps.. They tested it on the ground on jacks, the plane showed 3 green down and locked, and the gear did not come down.. they put that same control module in another aircraft and duplicated the problem.. turned out to be a faulty computer control module embraer had to fix..
Seen an uneventful 2 wheel landing in duchess in person.. and seen videos of others on just the nosewheel or just 1 main.. they just balanced on the wheel for as long as possible..
but.. I fly a pitts and land on one wheel all the time for fun.. so..
In the Embraer though.. Two mains.. definitely down. Any thing other than that Id probably put em up.. I think thats what the manual says as well..
Here is a pic of one of our jets in Boston.. pilots had a 3 green down indication, shortly before touchdown got a "landing lever disagree" warning, they said they thought gear was down and continued, can't remember all the details of exactly why they continued.. but anyway for whatever reason they continued the approach.. note the gear doors open, felt the sink more than normal at touchdown, realized gear was NOT down.. MAX thrust.. airplane dragged the flaps then took off again, got the gear down manually, landed safely without incident.. VERY, VERY lucky on that one. Only damage was on the flaps.. They tested it on the ground on jacks, the plane showed 3 green down and locked, and the gear did not come down.. they put that same control module in another aircraft and duplicated the problem.. turned out to be a faulty computer control module embraer had to fix..
ppragman
FLIPY FLAPS!
What kills you in a crash is vertical compression (e.g. falling) not the horizontal compression in equal form provided its not too extreme. I'd put the gear down, the gear will probably shear off and you'll get more energy shed from you. I think gear down is probably always a decent idea provided you're not ditching offshore.
I agree that gear up would probably be the way to land in the mud. A question was asked about fixed gear. They will take more mud and water than you would think. I landed a 602 Air Tractor and lost one of the brakes. My runway was 22 feet wide and had a shallow ditch on one side and a rice levee on the other. I was not going fast enough to go around, but was too fast to get stopped. I wound up plowing through the levee and out into the flooded rice field. I just knew I was going to wind up upside down. When I opened my eyes, there were three tracks through the levee and the airplane was sitting about seventy five yards out in the field facing the opposite direction. This was a heavier single engine plane though.
91-3A
Well-Known Member
Then there's the engine failure on a moonless night out in the country scenario. Haven't had it happen, but I've always been told to use the "Falling Leaf" method. Flaps down and fly as close to stall speed as possible when you think you're close to the ground. This speed and configuration will be mushy and difficult to control and the plane will be trying to break right or left on you, hence the falling leaf. I was constantly thinking of this scenario while doing night x-countries with my students in the mighty 152.
subpilot
Squawking 7600
In this senerio, don't forget to turn on your landing light when you think you are close to the ground. If you like what you see then keep it on but if you don't like what you see... turn it back off.
texas_pilot
Well-Known Member
Find a group of trees, about 6 inches diameter trunks if flying a 150, arranged in a close triangular pattern with the center tree out front 3 feet.
Smack the lead tree 5 or 6 feet above the ground. A 150 will break the trunk and allow the fuselage to slide in between the other 2 trees providing side support.
When all is said and done, the plane will rest on the broken tree and you can either get somebody to pull a door open or climb out a windscreen.
Smack the lead tree 5 or 6 feet above the ground. A 150 will break the trunk and allow the fuselage to slide in between the other 2 trees providing side support.
When all is said and done, the plane will rest on the broken tree and you can either get somebody to pull a door open or climb out a windscreen.
texas_pilot
Well-Known Member
I didn't see any daily trib/reporter newsflash surrounding the photo
